Jewels from £73m heist found in Paris sewer

Investigators have dug up jewels worth £15.5m hidden in a Paris sewer, part of a 2008 heist targeting the luxury jeweller Harry Winston.

Nineteen rings and three sets of earrings were found in a drain at a house in the working-class suburb of Seine-Saint-Denis, police said. The jewels were hidden in a plastic container set in cement. The house belonged to one of the nine people charged in the crime.

The robbery netted the thieves – some dressed as women and wearing wigs – gems and luxury watches worth up to £73m.

The Harry Winston boutique is on a street off the Champs-Élysées, which is dotted with fashion houses and fashionable cafés. The robbery, carried out in December 2008, was among the most audacious in France in recent memory.

Some rings, necklaces and watches were recovered when police rounded up 25 people in a sweep in June 2009 and eventually charged nine of them. Among those charged was the heist's suspected mastermind, who had been sentenced to 15 years in prison in a drug trafficking case. Police found stolen jewellery and about £650,000 at his house.

A guard at the boutique put police on the trail of the suspects. When investigators learnt that an Israeli was expected in Paris to buy some of the stolen jewels, police moved in to make the arrests.