Prosecutors in Ramsey County have charged five members of an apparent theft ring with stealing copper wire from dozens of streetlights in St. Paul.

Charging documents filed last week detail how the group would damage streetlights, take the copper wire and then sell it to local recycling facilities.

Court records note that police asked many of the recycling facilities to stop buying wire with St. Paul markings on the insulation, although the group would sometimes strip the wire from its insulation before selling, as the facilities generally pay more for cleaned wire.

Copper wire theft has been an issue for St. Paul and many other local communities for years. In the past five years, St. Paul says repairing damaged streetlights and replacing stolen wire has cost millions of dollars.

The incidents have led the city to try new plans to combat the thefts and even led state lawmakers to consider legislation to crack down on them. Work on that bill continues at the Capitol.

According to the charging documents, police received a tip in January from a confidential informant who said that this group was stealing wire from streetlights, along with some likely dates the group would be in action. Officers were able to get a warrant to track one of the suspect vehicles and, through surveillance, learned that the vehicle had gone to Dem-Con Metal Recycling in Blaine. Officers continued to monitor the group over the following weeks and learned that one of the suspects, 40-year-old Kyaw Klay, was so familiar to employees at Dem-Con from his frequent stops that they no longer even asked him for his identification when he went to sell wire.

Over just a two-month span during the winter, the criminal complaint states that Klay sold wire to Dem-Con 31 times.

On Feb. 16, officers again tracked one of the suspect vehicles. According to a complaint, the officers saw several people cutting wire from streetlights on the east side of the Marshall Street Bridge. More than two dozen streetlights were found damaged, which cost an estimated $125,000 to repair.

That continued on Feb. 23, when officers tracked a suspect vehicle near the Highland Aquatic Center and found 17 damaged streetlights in the area, costing around $85,000 to repair.

Hours later that same night, officers saw two people approaching streetlights near Stewart Avenue and Bay Street before returning to the suspect car. An hour later, officers pulled the vehicle over and arrested 36-year-old Nay Thar and 25-year-old Eh Tha Blay. The other alleged members of the ring were identified by officers as 21-year-old Paw Hkee La and 42-year-old Aye Mae.

Charging documents note that each of the five has past theft cases, most related to stealing copper wire from streetlights earlier this year.

They’re all charged with telecom damage, first-degree property damage and possession of burglary theft tools. The first two charges carry up to five years in prison, while the burglary theft tools count is punishable by up to three years behind bars. Blay faces two counts of each charge, as he was linked to both the Feb. 16 and 23 incidents.

Dem-Con COO Erik Schuck told 5 EYEWITNESS NEWS, “Dem-Con Metal Recycling is part of the scrap theft alert program and take theft very seriously. Specifically in this situation, we have been working with authorities throughout the length of their investigation and were taking direction from them, and providing information to them, throughout the process. We are glad that authorities have apprehended suspects in this matter.”

RELATED: 39-year-old sentenced to probation in connection to copper wire theft in St. Paul

Follow the progress of the copper wire theft bill and other high-interest bills with KSTP’s Legislative Tracker.