The gang members in Long Beach, a city in Los Angeles county in southern California, have been burglarising Indian families, often stealing gold, cash and other valuables since February 2013, CBS news reported.
Police say the ring of thieves averaged two burglaries per week and netted approximately USD 2 million over the past year.
Juan Guerrero, 22; Ivan Ramirez, 22; Albaro Miranda, 24; Salvador Ramirez, 24; and Teresa Ramirez, 57 have been arrested, authorities said adding 4 others are still at large.
"They were using the Internet to identify people of Indian descent and locate their houses," Ventura County Assistant Sheriff Gary Pentis was quoted as saying in the report.
The alleged robbers preyed on Indian families because it has been their culture to pass on jewellery, gold through generations and were often kept at home, Pentis said.
"These people did surveillance on the victims. They drove nice cars that fit into the communities that they were surveying and they dressed appropriately for the culture of the area they were in," he said.
Pentis said they found the suspects the same way the alleged thieves found their victims - through Facebook.
"A lot of these are Facebook, MySpace, Instagram, where they are bragging, showing gold and cash from their robberies, with their face.
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