Ten members of a ring of thieves faked car trouble and even hid inside a large garbage bag while they cut and ripped out miles of copper wiring supplying electricity to lights on H-1 and H-2 freeways, prosecutors said yesterday.

Three alleged "ringleaders" of the operation were indicted yesterday on charges including theft, racketeering, conspiracy, money laundering, drug trafficking and false swearing, or providing false statements.

James B. "Freeway Jimmy" Taylor Jr.; his wife, Regina L. Foster; and Joseph R. Tano all are being held on $250,000 bail and face up to 10 years in prison and $25,000 fines.

Deputy Prosecuting Attorney Christopher Van Marter said a plague of freeway copper thefts that darkened O'ahu roadways for years declined sharply after Taylor was arrested and charged in late June.

The thieves struck 12 sites on the freeways, sometimes more than once, stealing 72,000 pounds of copper wiring worth $563,000, Van Marter said.

They sold the wiring to metal recycling companies on O'ahu, visiting various establishments a total of 478 times, according to the prosecutor.

State transportation officials said it will cost up to $3 million to repair the freeway lighting.

There have been additional copper thefts since then on O'ahu roadways — and some authorities have attributed the overall decrease in thefts to a recent drop in the price of copper — but Van Marter said much of the credit belongs to investigators who spent two years cracking Taylor's theft ring.

The accused, who allegedly operated the ring from 2005 to July 2008, apparently were motivated by their addictions to crystal methamphetamine, according to Van Marter.

"Contrary to popular myth, people addicted to meth can operate at a very high level for a period of time," said the prosecutor.

Other members of the ring who are now cooperating in the investigation are Elaine S. Torres, William Kondas Jr., and Leslie M. Fulgoni, Van Marter said yesterday. All three were released without bail as a result of their cooperation.

Two others, Dean T. Rice and Cody K. Batongbacal, were ordered held on $25,000 bail. Melissa S. Myricks was ordered held on $11,000 bail. Bail for the final defendant, Symon Nikolaidis, was originally set at $11,000 but Circuit Judge Derrick Chan lowered it to $1,000 after Van Marter said Nikolaidis recently began cooperating with investigators.

SOLD FOR $144,801

Van Marter credited investigators from the sheriff's division of the state Department of Public Safety for building the case, with assistance from the Honolulu Police Department, the state attorney general and the Office of the Prosecuting Attorney.

Foster was in charge of deliveries and sales of stolen copper to recyclers, according to Van Marter. She allegedly sold the wiring at discounted prices, obtaining a total of $144,801.96 for the stolen material, he said.

Foster routinely took "a 10 to 20 percent cut off the top" and decided how to distribute the rest of the proceeds to other ring members, the prosecutor said.

State Transportation director Brennan Morioka was present when the indictment was returned and said it will cost taxpayers $2 million to $3 million to repair damages caused by the copper thieves.

The state has stopped making repairs for the time being because, in the past, thieves returned to steal replacement wiring, Morioka said.

Van Marter and Morioka said the case was made possible because of a law passed last year by the Legislature that tightens restrictions on re-sale of used metals, including copper, and imposes harsh new penalties for theft and re-sale of copper.

Recycling companies are required under the new law to obtain sworn statements from the sellers of recycled metals about where the material came from. The buyers also must take photographs of the sellers and record information about the sellers' cars.

The law is due to expire next year, and Morioka said lawmakers should be urged to renew and expand it during the upcoming legislative session.

FEIGNING CAR TROUBLE

The indictment returned yesterday lists 131 criminal counts. All but six of them accuse Foster of filing false statements when selling scrap metal to recyclers.

Foster also is charged in one count of distributing methamphetamine to co-defendant Kondas.

The defendants allegedly stopped vehicles at "pull boxes" on freeway light poles and cut the copper wiring inside the boxes.

They would disguise their activities by parking their vehicle next to a pull box and putting up the hood to indicate car trouble, according to Van Marter.

Sometimes they would place gas cans nearby as if the vehicles had run out of fuel, he said.

At least once, a defendant hid inside a heavy-duty plastic garbage bag on the side of the freeway, the prosecutor said.

Several sites were hit "repeatedly" by the defendants, Van Marter said. "They would go back three, four, five, six times," he said.

"Taylor was the leader. He came up with the scheme to disguise what was being done."