11 SUSPECTED IN WIDE-RANGING I.D. THEFT.

Byline: Nicholas Grudin Staff Writer

GLENDALE - Police in Glendale say they have broken up a ring of identity thieves whose crimes stretch as far as Arizona and involve more than $500,000 in stolen goods and cash.

Eleven men and women have been arrested over the past two weeks, including a West Los Angeles man police believe masterminded a sophisticated identity-theft scheme that included stealing credit cards and faking IDs of the rich and famous.

``A lot of the time, we catch people who are small pieces of larger groups. This time, we put a crime ring out of business,'' said Sgt. Todd Stokes of the Glendale Police Department. ``This is the biggest identity-theft ring that we've ever broken up.''

Marc Frazier of West Los Angeles - who police claim devised and organized the scheme - and 10 others have been arrested on suspicion of forgery, grand theft, commercial burglary and identity theft. Many of the suspects have information technology backgrounds, and some were arrested on suspicion of drug offenses as well.

When Frazier was arrested, he had the credit card of a well-known rock singer in his wallet, Stokes said, adding that later investigations revealed that other celebrities and one entertainment executive had been targeted as well.

Glendale police got wind of the high-tech scam in October when Astro Audio - a professional music-supply rental company in Glendale - reported it had been bilked out of about $20,000 in equipment.

At Astro Audio, an order was placed via fax with a credit card and identification information that appeared to be valid.

But the rented equipment was never returned, and Astro owner Craig Merrick discovered that the credit card and ID had been stolen.

Glendale police found that the credit-card information had been gleaned from the victim's computer records and transactions, and the ID forged, something that law enforcement officials are seeing more and more of with advances in computer technology.

``Unfortunately, ID theft has become far too common a problem in L.A County,'' said Deputy District Attorney Jonathon Fairtlough, who heads the District Attorney's Office's High-Tech Crimes Unit and is now investigating the Frazier case.

Police found almost identical crimes reported by other professional film and music-equipment stores all over the Southland and as far away as Arizona. When Glendale police followed Frazier's crew back to a West Los Angeles house, a search warrant revealed that Glendale's equipment-theft reports were just the tip of the iceberg, Stokes said.

``When we walked into that house, we knew we were in the right place. There were big padded studio cases stacked all over the house. This is professional movie-making equipment - one video recorder alone was worth $80,000,'' Stokes said.