Hauppauge -- Suffolk County District Attorney Thomas Spota joined by the director of the New York State Insurance Frauds Bureau Frank Orlando, Thomas Lohmann, New York Director of the National Insurance Crime Bureau, and Suffolk Police Commissioner Richard Dormer Tuesday announced the results of a sting operation targeting car thieves on Long island and the New York metropolitan area.

Twenty-two arrests have been made thus far and 92 vehicles, with a bluebook value of $1.1 million dollars, have been recovered.  Undercover detectives at a garage operated by law enforcement purchased the stolen cars, trucks and motorcycles from thieves, for five to ten percent of their bluebook value. 

The majority of the defendants arrested by district attorney squad detectives, DA detective–investigators, state fraud investigators, the SCPD Auto Theft Section and New York State Police, are charged with felony grand larceny and criminal possession of stolen property.  Fifteen more suspects are being sought.