In a series of dramatic early-morning raids, French police have arrested 16 people suspected to be connected to the robbery of Kim Kardashian, three months after she was bound, gagged, and robbed by a masked gang in a brutal Paris attack.
Kim was fleeced of millions of dollars worth of jewels in the terrifying episode in Paris in October, which was the biggest robbery of an individual in France for more than 20 years.
A number of the suspects are reported by The Guardian to be “well-known to detectives for armed robbery” and were picked up across France. While most were grabbed in the Paris region, there were also arrests in Normandy and the Riviera.
French news website thelocal.fr reports that police swooped in following the discovery of DNA at the luxury residence where Kardashian was tied up and robbed. The site quotes a source as saying: “One of the DNA samples matched an individual known to police for robbery and criminal offenses, who is considered a major thug.”
Police said the robbers were a "mixed bunch" mainly in their 50s with the oldest thought to be 72 years old, according to Le Figaro. Le Point described the men as; "veteran guys from the housing estates and people from the travelling community".
Kardashian, who has 50 million followers on Twitter and 90 million on Instagram, was staying at a luxury apartment while attending Paris fashion week when she was robbed by the gang, who wore police uniforms and fled the scene on bicycles.
Kardashian has spoken about the robbery in a promo clip for the upcoming season of E!’s Keeping Up With the Kardashians, which premieres in March.
The reality-TV star is shown in tears recalling the incident to sisters Kourtney and Khloe Kardashian, saying she was thinking, “They’re gonna shoot me in the back. There is no way out. It makes me so upset to think about it.”
She is also shown reacting to news of Kanye West’s breakdown in November.
Kardashian returned to social media last week, posting pictures of her family on Instagram.
The star was alone at the time of the raid as her German bodyguard, Pascal Duvier, was out at a club with her sisters.
