Overview
- Police detained Niakate Abdoulaye, a social‑media motocross figure known as “Doudou Cross Bitume,” and Ayed Ghelamallah on Oct. 25, and arrested Slimane K. on Oct. 29.
- Ghelamallah was stopped at Roissy‑Charles de Gaulle as he prepared to board a flight to Algiers, and Slimane K.’s partner was also taken into custody.
- Prosecutors say the two primary suspects gave partial admissions and asserted they were following instructions, even claiming they did not realize they were in the Louvre.
- The theft lasted about seven minutes on a Sunday morning, used a truck‑mounted lift for access, and the culprits fled on Yamaha T‑Max scooters seen in circulating videos.
- Abdoulaye’s record includes 15 convictions, among them a 2014 Barbès jewelry robbery with fake rifles and T‑Max scooters, and investigators view the trio as low‑level executors linked to a broader, possibly international, network.