Three people from New York -- a woman and two men -- were arrested and charged in connection with a series of burglaries in Northern Virginia. The trio was reportedly targeting Indians.
US Marshalls, working with the police burglary task force spotted a sport utility vehicle in Sully Police District in Fairfax county, with two men and a woman inside who fit the description of suspects in the burglaries. They stopped the vehicle at about 1:30 pm November 10.
The police charged nine felony counts against Francisco Gray, 39, of Nassau County, New York; Dagoberto Soto-Ramirez, 27, and his wife, Melinda Soto, 33, both of Queens, New York.
Each one is charged with four counts of burglary; four counts of grand larceny; and one count of conspiracy to commit burglary. They are being held without bond in the Fairfax County Adult Detention Center.
Investigators found a lap top, a GPS unit, and a police scanner tuned to Fairfax County police radio channels in the vehicle.
But no stolen property was found inside it. Bud Walker, a spokesman of the police, said they are executing search warrants to find the stolen property.
"Police did not reveal if they have searched the homes of the arrested were searched for the stolen items," Raman Kumar, one of the earliest victims of the burglary that began in October last year, said.
The defendants were using a rented vehicle. Indications are that they admitted to four of the more than 40 burglaries in Indian homes in the area.
"The arrest brings a feeling of great relief for us. Now we can sleep in our homes without fear," Kumar, who was organizing the victims of the burglary and was interacting with the police, said.
The arrests mark the beginning of a new phase of the investigation that is expected to include multiple jurisdictions in at least two states.
'The hard work and perseverance of the men and women involved in this ongoing investigation have led to three arrests. Thank you all for keeping a vigilant eye on our communities and reporting all suspicious activity to the police. The partnership we have established with you is an invaluable one that we will continue to nurture,' Sophia Grinnan, Crime Prevention Officer at Fairfax County Police Department, said in a message.
The task force, comprised of US Marshals and Fairfax County police officers numbering about 30 from the Sully, West Springfield, Franconia and Fair Oaks district stations, has been patrolling targeted areas across the county for several weeks. It was the US Marshalls, who spotted the vehicle.
"The task force did help, and news from the media also helped, as did the town meetings that were held to let people know about these burglaries," Kumar said.
"Forty or more Indian homes were burglarized in the last one year and more than a million worth of valuables were stolen. Kumar said earlier.
October 27 and 29 saw four burglaries each in Indian homes. In the first ten days of this month, (November) so far only one robbery is reported.
Most of the earlier victims displayed religious articles like pictures or idols of Lord Ganesh outside their home or garage. The robbers identified the homes from the religious articles and targeted gold, electronic items and passports, according to the police. The robbers come in daytime when people are away for work.
Police issued a statement in August saying that these burglaries could be the work of the same suspects, targeting mainly homes of Hindus, who display religious symbols.
Passports have become targets because they can be sold for money and there is a market for it, police said.
Some victims had seen the perpetrators fleeing. They described them as two Hispanic men in their late 20s to early 30s and one Hispanic woman. The description matched the arrested.
The woman will knock at the front door fiercely to ascertain whether anyone is inside. If somebody comes out, she will apologise and would tell it was a wrong address. If they found nobody inside, the men will enter the house from the back, either through the door or window.
Earlier, the burglars avoided homes with security system. But later they used technology to overcome that too.