The task force, made up mostly of Honolulu police officers and agents with the bureau of Alcohol Tobacco Firearms and Explosives, was formed in early October after a series of August burglaries in the East Honolulu area bore enough similarities to one another that a detective suspected they were connected, police said.

In August, district seven police detectives investigating a stolen car found a hotel receipt with the name Marlon Flores on it, police said. Police took the receipt to the hotel and found the names of other people connected to Flores.

Throughout the course of their two-month long investigation, police discovered that Flores and several others were burglarizing homes and breaking into and stealing cars all over O'ahu, mainly in East Honolulu and Waipahu, police said.

Police said Flores and his crew would fence the stolen property at A1 Pawnshop in Kalihi, where the owner would give them cash without question, an offense that he was later arrested for. The alleged thieves would then take the money and rent several hotel rooms where they would host private gambling and drug parties.

In all police arrested 25 people and recovered 475 items valued at more than $250,000.