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Police are questioning Kim Kardashian West’s Paris chauffeur after a series of arrests connected to a robbery in October in which the US reality TV star lost jewels and other property worth €9 million.
A total of 17 suspects in the case were detained in early morning raids across France on Monday.
Police told AFP that the chauffeur, who on the day of the heist had dropped off Kardashian West at the apartment where she was staying during Paris Fashion Week, was among those helping their inquiries.
They were questioning the chauffeur to establish whether he had tipped off the gang that Kardashian West was alone in the flat in the exclusive 8th arrondissement after her bodyguard left it to accompany her sister, Kourtney Kardashian, to a nightclub.
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A police source told L’Express magazine: “They [the suspects] are divided into three categories: those who are suspected of taking part in the robbery, those thought to have received the jewels and those suspected to have acted as intermediaries, mainly in acting as go-betweens.”
L'Express said a 72-year-old arrested in Grasse, on the French Riviera, and a 60-year-old from the Paris region, were suspected to have been among the five masked men who allegedly entered Kardashian West's apartment and tied her up at gunpoint.
Other suspects were thought to have played a secondary role, police said.
Video footage
Video surveillance footage of the street outside the apartment show the gang leaving calmly on foot and on bicycles with their haul in a plastic bag.
They allegedly left fingerprints and DNA on plastic handcuffs and tape used to restrain Kardashian West during the robbery and on a platinum and diamond cross necklace that was dropped in the street.
Having identified three suspects, French police put them under surveillance in order to track down their associates.
Le Figaro reported that police found €300,000 in cash during the raids, but no trace of Kardashian West’s jewels, including a €4 million diamond engagement ring given to her by husband, Kanye West.
Guardian service