Police early today arrested a 43-year-old man suspected of being the leader of a major copper theft ring responsible for hundreds of thousands of dollars of thefts in the Makakilo area.

The arrest was made at about 5:30 a.m.along a westbound stretch of H-1 Freeway, at the Makakilo off-ramp. Members of a task force, set up about two years ago, had spent the weekend staking out an electrical box that had been left open and had a cola bottle covering a live wire that had already been cut.

"The Coke bottle over the wire was a new one," said Glenn Hamamura, a foreman with the state Department of Transportation's highway lighting division. "My partner, Ronald Maekawa, and I do checks on the electrical boxes from Kunia to Industrial Park because thieves sometimes leave them open or leave a wire exposed so they know which ones to come back and hit later. When we saw the bottle, we knew they'd be coming back soon."

He added,"The task force with the police and sheriff's department couldn't have worked better. We finally got him."

Hamamura said he contacted the sheriff's department last week and enforcement officers sat across the highway last night watching a man as he allegedly parked a car nearby, surveyed the area and took wire from the site.

Copper theft is a felony punishable by up to seven years in prison for each offense.

Hamamura estimates the copper stolen from electrical boxes in the Kapolei and Makakilo area by the suspect and his alleged gang is about $750,000 for the wire alone. Replacing the wire is estimated at about $2 million, Hamamura said.

"I've lost count of how many police reports I've had to make because of copper thefts in this area," Hamamura said.

"These guys make it dangerous for motorists. They've stolen so much wire that they've forgotten some places they've hit. What they'll do is mark the ones they need to come back to by either leaving the box open or sticking a wire out that's been cut. It's like little tags for them. The Coke bottle was the first time I saw that, so we knew they'd be back soon."

Reach Dave Dondoneau at ddondoneau@honoluluadvertiser.com.