Baggage handlers detained over theft at Paris airport

PARIS (AFP) - Eleven baggage handlers and two maintenance workers were arrested on Wednesday on suspicion of stealing valuables from bags going through the Roissy-Charles de Gaulle airport in Paris.

Police said the gang had targeted flights coming in from Dubai, Johannesburg, Washington DC and New York and had taken items including jewellery, designer clothes and leather goods.

Four of the suspects were arrested at the airport and the other nine were detained in dawn raids on their homes.

The suspected gang has been under investigation since October last year, when police discovered a number of broken padlocks near a luggage belt in a warehouse belonging to a handling company.