Law enforcement officials announced Friday that four individuals have been arrested and charged in connection with 43 burglaries and break-ins across 25 towns in Massachusetts, including Hopkinton, between 2018 and 2024. The defendants are part of an organized burglary ring with ties to a violent Providence-based gang known to law enforcement agencies in Rhode Island, the Middlesex District Attorney’s Office stated.

Those charged all are from Rhode Island: Jovan Lemon, 29, of Providence, Paul Lemon, 30, of Warwick, Steven Berdugo, 28, of Providence, and Paul Miller, 46 of Woonsocket. The defendants were taken into custody without incident Friday morning after being arrested in their homes by members of the United States Marshals Service/Rhode Island State Police Task Force.

The defendants were directly indicted by a Middlesex grand jury on April 18 for a total of 95 counts of unarmed burglary and breaking and entering a dwelling house in the daytime with intent to commit a felony. The incidents giving rise to the charges occurred in the communities of Billerica, Boxborough, Carlisle, Easton, Hopkinton, Lincoln, Weston, Sudbury, Andover, Bellingham, Boxford, Franklin, Hudson, Littleton, Medway, Middleton, Millis, North Attleboro, Norwell, Pembroke, Seekonk, Sharon, Southborough, Wenham, and Westwood between July 21, 2018, and March 30, 2024.

The residents of the majority of homes were persons of Indian or South Asian heritage, the DA stated. Investigators believe that they were targeted based on of their ethnicity relying on a belief that their households were more likely to contain precious metals, jewelry and other valuable heirlooms.

Property reported stolen in the breaks included many pieces of diamonds and other gems and studded jewelry with values of individual pieces up to approximately $75,000, gold bracelets, necklaces, earrings and large quantities of cash. In several instances, the property had been secured in locked safes weighing up to 400 pounds, which the perpetrators removed from the residence along with the stolen valuables.

The aggregate reported value of the stolen property exceeds $4 million.

“The defendants in this case were very sophisticated,” Middlesex District Attorney Marian Ryan said. “They targeted victims based on their ethnicity and then gathered information about their targets in order to strike when families were not at home. They were disciplined in concealing their identity, avoiding alarms and minimizing cell phone use before, during and after the breaks, and using Wi-Fi jammers. Despite these challenges and the complicated nature and breadth of this investigation, law enforcement collaboratively and persistently worked to begin the process of holding these four defendants accountable.”

Lieutenant Colonel Mark Cyr, commander of the Massachusetts State Police Division of Homeland Security, added: “The theft crew we arrested today stole countless items of great monetary, emotional, and cultural value from families in multiple states, and did so by violating the sanctity of their homes. Such brazen criminal actions will not be tolerated in our communities. This investigation highlights the dedication of our law enforcement partners to work collaboratively to take down complex criminal networks.”

The arrests are the result of a nine-month investigation by the Middlesex District Attorney’s Office, the Massachusetts State Police Detective Unit assigned to the District Attorney’s Office, and the Massachusetts State Police Division of Homeland Security, including the MACrimeNet program operated by the MSP Fusion Center.

The MACrimeNet program provides police from different departments capabilities to obtain and share intelligence about criminal acts and patterns, suspects and other relevant information to help solve complex or cross-jurisdictional cases.

Further assistance was provided by the Rhode Island State Police and local police departments across Massachusetts and Rhode Island.