On Tuesday, Nov. 10, police arrested three people suspected of a string of 26 burglaries across Fairfax County since late January. Most of the victims have been of South Asian descent, a population that appears to have been targeted because its members traditionally own relatively large collections of high-karat gold jewelry, often passed down through the generations.

More than half of the burglaries in the county took place in the Fair Oaks police district.

According to a police release, Francisco Gray, 39, of Nassau County, N.Y., 27-year-old Dagoberto Soto-Ramirez and his wife, Melinda Soto, 33, both of Queens, N.Y., were stopped and arrested in the Clifton area, near Centreville. They have each been charged with four counts of burglary; four counts of grand larceny and one count of conspiracy to commit burglary in connection with four thefts perpetrated last month in the Fair Oaks area. The three are being held without bond.

Police spokesman Bud Walker said the charges were based on burglarious materials found in the vehicle they were driving.

It was a U.S. marshal who spotted the three suspects in the Cavalier Woods neighborhood. Walker said the marshals had been involved in the case for a number of weeks. "We had over 30 law enforcement individuals out in the field and we had them out there for several weeks now," he said.

According to an affidavit to search the suspects’ vehicle, witnesses in neighborhoods where burglaries were committed in late October had described a blue SUV. As with earlier cases, they also described a Hispanic female with red-tinted hair and a Hispanic male in a blue jumpsuit. On Oct. 29, a man matching that description knocked on a neighbor’s door and asked whether Ahmad Khan was home. When the woman said he had the wrong address, he asked if she needed any plumbing work done and then left. Since then, the affidavit says, police had been canvassing neighborhoods, looking for a blue SUV with suspects matching the description.

It was on Tuesday, Nov. 10, about 1:30 p.m., when the marshal saw such a car on Cavalier Woods Lane. When the driver noticed the marshal’s vehicle, the affidavit says, the car "made several U-turns attempting to leave the neighborhood and evade him" before he initiated a traffic stop. After the vehicle was stopped, police arrived and saw, in plain view, a laptop, a GPS device, a backpack, a utility bag and a police scanner tuned to the Fairfax County frequency in the vehicle, along with an invoice for plumbing work for an Ahmad Khan.

Walker said police had been in touch with authorities in New York, as well as neighboring jurisdictions, including Loudoun and Prince William counties, which may have also had burglaries that were part of the spree. Four similar incidents were reported in Loudoun’s South Riding area since late June. Walker said he did not know whether the three suspects were known to New York authorities. "We’ll be executing search warrants at various locations that may include places in New York," he said.

"Even though we take comfort in these arrests, the police want to warn the community not to relax their guard," Walker said, noting that the media attention could encourage similar crimes. On that front, he said, the communication lines that were strengthened between police and the South Asian community during the burglary spree would continue to be useful. "Continued dialogue and communication with the South Asian community is needed and will continue," he said.