Police Seize Stolen Bus Transfers : Crime: Eight suspects are arrested in theft and sale of passes. Such rings are believed to cost the RTD $2 million a year.

RTD Transit Police officers arrested eight people Friday on suspicion of running a stolen bus-transfer operation, one of a number of groups selling counterfeit or stolen passes costing the RTD about $2 million a year, officials said.

Officers confiscated $15,000 in cash and 42 books of stolen RTD bus transfers with a value of more than $2,000.

Police have arrested 134 people so far this year for selling stolen transfers or forged bus passes, said RTD Police Chief Sharon Papa. Friday’s arrests were the culmination of a five-week investigation.

“We consider this a significant breakthrough in our investigation,” Papa said. “All . . . of the transfers were found dated for use (Friday), the only day they could have been used. This gives us an idea of how much revenue we could have been losing each day this ring was operating.”

Most of illegal transfers were sold at about half the legitimate price at bus stops in downtown Los Angeles, Papa said. Last month about 25 people were cited--and face fines of up to $250--for buying the stolen bus transfers. Recently illegal sales activity has spread to Huntington Park and the San Fernando Valley, Papa said.

In addition to the stolen transfers--worth $1.10 each--the RTD is plagued by the use of counterfeit discount tickets and forged monthly bus passes, Papa said.

The suspects were booked Friday at Los Angeles County Jail on charges of grand theft, embezzlement and conspiracy. One of the suspects was a part-time RTD bus driver. Officials suspect the transfers were stolen from the agency.

The RTD identified four of those arrested as “primary suspects.” They are Ramon Morales, 27, the part-time driver; Luis Fresco, 40; Miguel Saldibar, 24, and Jose Luis Selis, 20, all of Los Angeles. Identities of the other suspects were not immediately available.

“It’s very much like a drug ring,” said RTD board President Marvin Holen. “You have the ringleaders obtaining the transfers . . . and the pushers at the bus stops peddling them to people.”

Last October, the RTD switched from a standard monthly bus pass design to a hologram pattern, which is much more difficult to duplicate. Since then, counterfeiting of passes has been reduced.

To cut down on counterfeit monthly bus passes, three-member RTD police teams also began boarding buses in October, and more than 100 forged passes were confiscated during a three-month period.