7 Arrested in Interstate Burglary, Forgery Ring : Crime: Deputies believe they stole up to $1 million in artwork, jewelry and antiques from affluent Southland homes.

Seven people from Arizona and Washington have been arrested in connection with a sophisticated burglary-forgery ring believed to have stolen up to $1 million in artwork, jewelry and antiques from at least 18 Southern California homes, authorities said Friday.

Among the items recovered by Los Angeles County Sheriff’s deputies, with the help of police in Seattle and Phoenix, were ivory carvings, gold rings, a Joan Miro print, silk ties, hand-painted vases and a black 1990 Mercedes-Benz valued at more than $80,000.

Detectives said the ring had been operating for the last six to eight weeks, targeting affluent neighborhoods primarily in the San Gabriel Valley and shipping the stolen property out of state to be resold.

The suspects, many of whom apparently met several years ago in an Arizona jail, also used stolen credit cards, driver licenses, birth certificates and passports to make fraudulent purchases, officers said.

“It all of a sudden mushroomed once we got into it,” Sheriff’s Department Detective Richard Berner said. “Every day we seem to pick up a new victim.”

In custody at the Walnut substation were John Esseltyn, 34, and Rocky Alan Baribeau, 40, both of Bellevue, Wash. In Seattle, police were holding Bradley Mark Sullivan, 27, and his girlfriend, Lisa Caroline Dietz, 23, also of Bellevue. And in Phoenix, authorities were holding three additional male suspects whose names were not released.

Two more people, a man in his 40s and a woman in her 20s, were being sought.

Charges against the suspects include burglary, receiving stolen property, use of stolen credit cards and obtaining money by false pretenses.

Sheriff’s deputies stumbled onto the ring Aug. 1, when they were notified by Montclair police that two men were in custody for attempting to charge more than $2,000 in jewelry with a JC Penney credit card reported stolen in Walnut the day before.

From those suspects, identified as Esseltyn and Baribeau, detectives learned that three footlockers--marked “fragile” and allegedly filled with stolen property--were on a bus headed to Seattle.

Police there intercepted the trunks and arrested Dietz and Sullivan, who was allegedly headed to a coin dealer with thousands of dollars in stolen jewelry, officers said.

By poring over recent burglary reports and matching identification numbers etched into some of the seized items, detectives linked the property to residential break-ins in Pasadena, Arcadia, San Gabriel, Diamond Bar, Walnut, Chino Hills and Rancho Cucamonga.

Sheriff’s deputies, who on Friday unveiled a display of marble chests, turquoise pendants, Oriental paintings and glass figurines, will head to Seattle today to recover even more property that they believe will link the suspects to additional burglaries.