According to The Hollywood Reporter, Paris police officials said at least 16 people have been detained and held for questioning in connection to 36-year-old Kim Kardashian West’s October 3 robbery in Paris.
The officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity as they are not yet allowed to speak publicly of the continuing investigation, revealed that the suspects were picked up during a coordinated police operation that began in the early hours of Monday morning in the Paris region.
According to police, the youngest of those arrested is 23 while the oldest is 72. It has also emerged that three women are among those arrested in the raids.
It’s believed that the women were instructed to follow Kim around Paris in the days prior to the robbery.
The Mirror reports that the suspects have been dubbed as “career criminals” by French police as many are already well known to detectives for their previous involvement in armed robberies and other crimes.
The publication has also revealed that the oldest suspect arrested is a man known only by the name ‘Pierre B’, who has been described as a “career villain”
After the traumatic event, Kourtney Kardashian revealed that Kim’s “not doing that well.”
Several reports have suggested that police tracked down the suspects through DNA evidence and fingerprints found at the luxury Hôtel de Pourtalès, where Kim was robbed of $11 million dollars worth of jewellery.
The heist included a diamond ring Kim had prominently displayed in a selfie less than a week before the robbery.
Speaking with Agence France-Presse a police source explained, “One of the DNA samples matched an individual known to police for robbery and criminal offences, who is considered a major thug.”
According to Page Six police obtained one such DNA sample from a piece of tape which was used to gag the Keeping up with the Kardashians star.
French police can hold the suspects for a total of 96 hours before police must either charge them or let them go.
Kim has significantly reduced her public profile after she was robbed just days after posting this glitzy selfie.
It also emerged Monday that a French judge could travel to New York to question Kim and show her a video of the suspects.
Speaking with The Mirror an insider said, “The hope is that she will be able to recognize [sic] the men, so as to make positive identifications.”
It has not been made clear whether the video in question is the same footage that was leaked to the internet in the days following the horrifying ordeal.
WATCH: The chilling moment Kim’s five masked robbers made their stealthy getaway. Post continues after video…
In the CCTV tape, obtained by French news outlet M6, five masked criminals, who bound, gagged and robbed Kim at gunpoint in her Paris hotel, are seen making their way to the property at around 2:29am on October 3.
According to the time stamp in the clip, it would appear that the gang, three on push pikes and two on foot, made their escape approximately 49 minutes later.
As they fled, the last member to make off could be seen with a bag over his handlebars – believed to contain the $11 million in stolen jewels.
Astonishingly, no footage was obtained from the hotel where Kim chose to stay during Paris fashion week when the robbery took place.
The hotel where Kim Kardashian was robbed at gunpoint.
Speaking to the lack of security, the hotel’s concierge identified only as Abdulrahman, spoke to the Daily Mail about the evening he was handcuffed along with Kim in her hotel suite.
“There was no real security at all. It’s a choice. The hotel doesn’t mind about security,” Abdulrahman told the Mail Online. “We told them years and years before, ‘You have to make a camera, you have to put [in place] a security process, about keys.’ Nothing was locked, there was no proper security there.”
Before the robbery took place, Kim reportedly “felt safe” in the prestigious hotel.
After the crime the father-of-one said he was furious at the establishment and told them he held them responsible.
“I told them, ‘Look what you did! What I told you for six years?’ Security cameras and other things are meant for days like today, to prevent these things from happening,” he says. “If you have good guards, electronic systems to lock the doors, it can be possible to secure the hotel.”
He added: “One day, someone might be killed. That is more important than a robbery of rocks and metal.”
