17 Reportedly Arrested In Connection To Kim Kardashian West Robbery

French police have reportedly arrested more than a dozen people during raids linked to the high-profile robbery of reality TV star Kim Kardashian West in Paris last October.

During the robbery, a group of thieves burst into the private residence where Kardashian West was staying, held her at gunpoint, then escaped on bicycles with jewelry worth about $10 million.

There's some confusion about exactly how many people police have arrested — some French media outlets say 16, while others say 17.

DNA left at the scene proved crucial to the investigation, one police official told Agence France-Presse.

"One of the DNA samples matched an individual known to police for robbery and criminal offences, who is considered a major thug," the official told the news agency. He added that they were able to then "build up a picture of the criminal network behind the robbery ... adding that it stretched to Belgium."

Police arrested people during raids in Paris and in southern France, Agnes Thiebault-Lecuivre, a spokeswoman for the Paris prosecutor's office, told The New York Times. She added that "the oldest of those arrested was 72 and that several of the others were in their 40s, 50s and 60s, which suggested that they were part of an 'experienced" group,'" according to the newspaper.

The police targeted those suspected of carrying out the robbery, along with intermediaries and those thought to be responsible for selling the stolen items, Le Figaro reports.

Immediately after the robbery, a spokeswoman for Kardashian West said she was "badly shaken but physically unharmed," as The Two-Way noted at the time.

Since then, she has kept a relatively low profile, but she tearfully recalled the ordeal in a promo video released Friday for her family's reality TV show Keeping Up With The Kardashians.

"They're going to shoot me in the back," she recalled thinking as she was surrounded by her family members. "There's no way out. ... It makes me so upset to think about it."

Copyright 2017 NPR. To see more, visit http://www.npr.org/.