Authorities arrested three people they say were part of a large mail theft ring in South Florida.
Nicknamed "Operation Hook, Line, and Sinker," the United States Postal Service told NBC 6 Wednesday that the alleged thieves fished through the USPS' blue mailboxes and took business and personal checks and money orders.
Those checks would be made payable to other individuals with fake drivers licenses or other fraudulent IDs and would then be deposited to the banks, inspectors said. Once the checks were cleared, those allegedly involved in the ring would withdraw the funds from ATMs.
"It's a pretty big network of individuals that have to work together in order to commit this crime, this fraud," said U.S. Postal Inspector Bryan Masamela.
Eduardo Aparicio, Anier Leon and Lubia Nunez were taken into custody Wednesday and will appear in court Thursday. Inspectors are looking for seven others in connection with the ring.
