French police arrested 17 suspects in connection with the October robbery of US reality television and social media star Kim Kardashian West, the Paris prosecutor’s office told DPA yesterday.
The suspects were aged between 23 and 73, the prosecutor’s office said, confirming earlier reports of the arrests.
Broadcaster BFMTV said the 17 were detained during early morning police operations in southern France and in the Paris region.
Kardashian West and her husband Kanye West are known as “Kimye” in the media.
Kardashian West, 36, was held up during a robbery at her rented flat during a stay in central Paris on October 3.
Her spokesperson said at the time that the star was “badly shaken, but physically unharmed”.
During the incident, five people disguised as police arrived at the hotel before two entered the apartment where Kardashian West was staying, robbing her of an estimated €9mn ($10mn) worth of jewellery, including a ring valued at €4mn and a jewellery box valued at €5mn.
The prosecutor’s office said that the jewels had not been retrieved during yesterday’s arrests.
A spokesperson declined to give further details about the operation.
According to BFMTV, the arrests were made following the discovery of DNA traces on a piece of jewellery that fell during the robbers’ escape by bicycle.
Investigators also used video surveillance images, the report said.
Kardashian West had been in the French capital to attend Fashion Week shows with her mother and sister.
Kardashian West, who first gained notoriety when a sex video of her was made public in 2007, remained uncharacteristically silent on her social media channels for months following the heist.
She published her first posts since then on Twitter and Instagram at the start of the year, showcasing photographs of her two children and husband Kanye.
France and its capital have seen security tightened after a series of terrorist attacks that have left more than 230 people dead in the past two years.
Kanye West and Kim Kardashian.
