PARIS —Police in predawn sweeps Thursday arrested two top former executives of the now-defunct French company at the center of a breast-implant scandal affecting tens of thousands of women worldwide.
Jean-Claude Mas, who founded and ran implant-maker Poly Implant Prothese, was detained as part of a judicial probe in Marseille into manslaughter and involuntary injuries, an official said. A regional official said former No. 2 Claude Couty also was detained. The suspect PIP implants have been pulled from the market in several countries amid fears they could rupture and leak silicone into the body. The suspect implants are made with industrial-grade silicone instead of medical-grade gel.
Mas’ arrest before dawn culminates weeks of speculation about whether judicial investigators would be able to assemble enough evidence to detain him on legal grounds. The Associated Press
