Breaking: Arrests Made in Serial Jewelry Thefts

Fairfax County Police, working with the U.S. Marshall Service, have arrested three people in connection with the ongoing series of jewelry thefts that have largely targeted Indian families in Reston and throughout the county.

U.S. Marshalls working with the police burglary task force spotted a sport utility vehicle with two men and a woman inside who fit the description of suspects in the burglaries. They stopped the vehicle at Moore Road and Clifton Road about 1:30 p.m. Tuesday, November 10, 2009.

Subsequent investigation by members of the burglary task force led to nine felony charges 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 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.

Fairfax County police executed a search warrant and searched the sport utility vehicle the three suspects were in when they were stopped. Investigators found a lap top computer, a GPS unit, and a police scanner tuned to Fairfax County police radio channels.

The arrests mark the beginning of a new phase in the investigation that is expected to include multiple jurisdictions in at least two states.

A multi-state burglary ring? That's a heck of a lot more exciting than the usual criminal fare around here.

Update: The Post has more, including this exciting account of the pursuit and arrest:

According to an affidavit filed by Fairfax police Detective T.J. Harrington, Deputy U.S. Marshal Edgar Cline was working on the investigation and spotted a blue Ford Escape on Wednesday night on Cavalier Woods Lane, just south of Lee Highway. The Escape was being driven by a Hispanic male and a Hispanic female was in the passenger seat, Harrington wrote. Cline began pursuing it.

The Escape made several U-turns, apparently trying to evade Cline, according to Harrington, but the marshal pulled the Escape over on Moore Road near Clifton Road.

In multiple cases, neighbors of the burglary victims had reported the woman with the pink- or red-tinted hair had knocked on their door, and that they also had seen the man in the blue work uniform nearby. On Oct. 29, a neighbor told police that a man in the blue uniform knocked on her door and asked if Ahmad Khan was home. The resident told the man he had the wrong address, and he left.

On the clipboard inside the Escape stopped Wednesday night was an invoice, dated Oct. 7, for "Ahmad Khan."