A new Illinois task force battling retail theft charged five men and a woman on Sept. 28 with running a multistate car theft ring.

Anthony Brown (who, as a rapper, goes by Tony Sosa), 40, of Lansing; and Sierra Wells, 27, of Orland Park allegedly obtained high-value vehicles by defrauding dealerships and financial institutions of about $100,000 by using stolen and fraudulent identities. The pair face up to 30 years in prison.

Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul said his office worked with police from Barrington and West Chicago to investigate a pattern of seemingly isolated retail automobile thefts. The investigation spanned years and involved thefts in Illinois and other states. Entities in the banking, insurance and automotive industries helped identify organizers of the crimes.

Accomplices Kevin Bandy, 48; DeAngelo Hackney, 30; James Krout, 47; and Zebedee Moore, 48, were charged with identity theft, aggravated possession of a stolen motor vehicle, theft by deception, financial institution fraud, and forgery, charges which could bring up to 15 years in prison.

"These indictments allege that the defendants orchestrated and executed a complex fraud operation that crossed county and even state lines to steal expensive luxury vehicles and defraud car dealerships and financial institutions in the process," Raoul said. "I appreciate the critical support from our federal and local law enforcement partners as well as our retail partners. Today’s charges demonstrate the importance of partnerships and collaborations in order to better protect communities and hold individuals accountable for these complex criminal operations."

Raoul’s office was supported during the investigation and prosecution by the state’s attorney offices of Robert Berlin in DuPage County and Kimberly Foxx in Cook County. The Attorney General’s Organized Retail Crime Task Force is the first statewide, public-private collaboration of its kind in Illinois and is designed to foster cooperation among retailers, online marketplaces, law enforcement agencies and state’s attorneys dedicated to targeting organized retail crime enterprises.