Houston:
Four men of South American origin have been arrested in the US state of Texas for a string of lunchtime burglaries, including of jewellery worth over USD 1 million, in the houses of people of Indian and Asian descent.
College Station city police arrested the four persons of South American origin for committing robberies in the area.
The victims were of Indian and Asian descent, police said.
Police believe the crimes are organised, KBTX.com news website reported.
Police said the group of burglars chose to commit the crimes in the middle of the day, around lunch time.
Since September, residents in the Edelweiss Estates community had been targeted, and the burglars had been taking jewellery, that over time has amounted to over USD 1 million.
"We had been doing a lot of analytical work, to try and build a pattern of when they were gonna hit, when its most likely and what neighbourhoods were most targeted," explained Assistant Chief of Police Billy Couch.
Carols Cordoba, Helmer Bellaga, Harold Murillo and Alex Castillo-Valencia were all taken into custody and are being held on USD 250,000 bonds.
"We have an ongoing investigation trying to link them to other crimes that occurred that have a similar M-O and similar victims," said Mr Couch.