Authorities have broken up a sophisticated burglary ring that targeted families of Indian or South Asian heritage and was allegedly responsible for 43 break-ins in more than two dozen communities in Middlesex County since 2018, District Attorney Marian T. Ryan said Friday.
Several suspects with alleged ties to a gang in Providence were arrested, including a father and his two sons, Ryan said. She identified them as Paul Miller, 46, of Woonsocket, R.I., and his sons, Jovan M. Lemon, 29, of Providence, and Paul E. Lemon, 30, of Warwick, R.I. The fourth suspect arrested was identified as Steven Berdugo, 28, of Providence.
The men were taken into custody in their homes and will face 95 counts of unarmed burglary and breaking and entering a dwelling house in the daytime with intent to commit a felony, Ryan said.
The men did not fight rendition and were placed in the custody of Massachusetts State Police. They were booked at the State Police barracks in Millbury and Dartmouth and will be held at the Middlesex County jail until their arraignments in Middlesex Superior Court next week, State Police said.
Members of the group used devices to disable home surveillance systems during the break-ins, both at the home they were targeting and nearby residences, Ryan said at a news conference.
“They were sophisticated, both in avoiding cameras and other surveillance devices. We believe they were also using Wi-Fi jammers,” she said. “While a home was being broken into, neighbors, for instance, who might have been streaming on their TVs, would suddenly lose their Wi-Fi for half an hour or so. And then it would come back on again.”
The ring identified its alleged victims by obtaining memberships lists from temples attended by Indian and South Asian families and may have placed GPS trackers on their vehicles to alert them when they were not home, Ryan said.
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Ryan said thieves typically entered homes through a second-floor window and would bring collapsible ladders with them to reach the upper levels of the home. The alleged burglars would even remove heavy safes.
“It’s important to note that a number of these families had secured their valuable items in safes inside their home. Some of those safes themselves weighed as much as 400 pounds,” Ryan said. “The thieves removed those ... dropping them from a second-floor window.”
The burglaries took place between 2018 and this year in Billerica, Boxborough, Carlisle, Easton, Hopkinton, Lincoln, Weston, Sudbury, Andover, Bellingham, Boxford, Franklin, Hudson, Littleton, Medway, Middleton, Millis, North Attleboro, Norwell, Pembroke, Seekonk, Sharon, Southborough, Wenham, and Westwood, authorities said.
Ryan said police searched four locations in connection with the arrests, recovering stashes of jewelry and cash.
“We recovered a very large amount of jewelry that was consistent with what we knew had been reported stolen by the families whose homes had been broken into,” she said. “We had information that diamonds and other gems — some with an individual value of up to $75,000 have been taken — vast quantities of gold jewelry, including bracelets, necklaces, earrings, and other items and large quantities of cash.”
Ryan said investigators heard from families that many of the stolen items had been passed down from generation to generation.
”They had enormous emotional and family significance,” she said.
Authorities are in the process of notifying victims about the recovery of stolen items, Ryan said.
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The arrests followed an investigation involving numerous law enforcement agencies, including State Police in Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Connecticut, as well as dozens of city and town police departments and the US Marshals Service, State Police said.
Nick Stoico of the Globe staff contributed to this report.
John R. Ellement can be reached at john.ellement@globe.com. Follow him @JREbosglobe.