Limo Driver Arrested in Connection to Kim Kardashian Robbery Released Without Charges

TMZ reports French police let the individual go Tuesday

By McKenna Aiello Jan 11, 2017 2:17 AMTags

UPDATE: French news source LCI reports that 14 individuals remain in custody as of Wednesday night. A 27-year-old limo driver the publication identifies as Gary M., who worked for the Kardashian family in the past, is among those still held by authorities.

________

The pool of potential suspects in Kim Kardashian's robbery case has decreased by one. 

TMZ and other French outlets report the 40-year-old limo driver who chauffeured the Keeping Up With the Kardashians star during her stay in Paris last October was released from police custody Tuesday morning without criminal charges. 

The individual, identified by TMZ as Michael Madar, was one of 16 people E! News confirmed were recently arrested in connection to the terrifying incident. The private luxury limousine company told TMZ that their employee was brought in for "testimony purposes only," and had nothing to do with the crime. 

According to French magazine Le Monde, authorities arrested 14 men and three women with an average age of 55-years-old. The oldest suspect, identified as "Pierre B." is 72 years of age. 

juliano-daddy/X17online.com

A source disclosed to E! News at the time that Pierre, the alleged ringleader of the heist, was arrested after officers broke down the gate of his villa in Plascassier, a village near Grasse, in the south of France. The report also stated that DNA was found on the hose clamp that matched the police records of a man arrested for armed robbery, and that was the lead for authorities. The police then spent days watching the CCTV images around the hotel before the robbery.

On October 3, 2016 multiple masked men entered Kardashian's Parisian hotel room and bound, gagged and held her at gunpoint. The mother of two was left "badly shaken but physically unharmed" and robbed of $11 million worth of jewelry

In the three months that followed, Kim stayed completely out of the spotlight and only recently began stepping out in public and sharing updates on social media. On Monday night, Kim went out for dinner with husband Kanye West and when asked if she was relieved about the news from France, she replied, "Yes."

Kim broke her silence on the horrific experience during an exclusive KUWTK promo for the upcoming season's return in March on E!

"They're going to shoot me in the back," she says in tears, recalling the incident. "There's no way out. It makes me so upset to think about it."

Kardashian is set to make her first official appearance since the robbery in Dubai this Friday, a makeup class rescheduled after the incident.