French Police Officer Arrested For Allegedly Stealing Cocaine In Heist Straight Out Of A Crime Movie

REUTERS/Mariana Bazo An anti-narcotics worker carries a bag containing cocaine during a drug incineration in Lima September 12, 2013.

A French narcotics police officer was arrested Saturday on suspicion of stealing over 50 kilos of seized cocaine from the Paris police headquarters.

The 34-year-old officer, who was not publicly identified, was believed to have made off with the illegal drugs - which have a street value of up to three million euros ($4 million) - after security cameras spotted a person resembling him entering the headquarters with two bags, according to a joint statement from police and prosecutors.

The officer with the Paris drugs squad was arrested on the Spanish border, where he was on vacation.

The missing cocaine has become a major embarrassment for the Paris police, with French media describing it as a real-life heist worthy of a crime movie.

The drug cache was seized in a Paris raid in early July.

It was found on Thursday to have gone missing from a secure room in the police headquarters, which overlooks the Seine river close to the famed Notre Dame cathedral.

The headquarters attracted unwelcome attention in April when two elite French officers were charged with raping a Canadian tourist there in a case that sent shockwaves across France.

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