RING TIED TO 60 BREAK-INS.

Byline: Jaxon Van Derbeken Daily News Staff Writer

A sophisticated band of burglars has been linked to 60 break-ins of expensive homes across Los Angeles in which the suspects carried off jewelry, art, safes and more after defeating home alarm systems, police said Monday.

Half of the daytime burglaries since March occurred in Porter Ranch and Granada Hills.

``They are doing a good job of getting in and out real quick - disarming the alarm and getting away with cash and jewelry,'' said Detective Barbara Bella of the Los Angeles Police Department's Burglary Auto Theft detail.

Five suspects are in custody and more are being sought in connection with the group, dubbed the ``liquid bandits'' for disabling alarms using everything from honey to laundry detergent to ketchup.

``They came up with an idea about how to commit a residential burglary, it was very effective for them over a period of time,'' said Detective Tom Broad of the LAPD's Devonshire Division.

Broad said the burglars attack alarm boxes, short-circuiting the systems with the liquids during the built-in time delay before the police or private security company can be alerted. During the usual 30-second delay, a homeowner has time to disarm the alarm.

``It's always in a front closet, or a bedroom closet - they seem to be able to find them,'' Bella said.

Expensive homes are usually targeted, authorities said. The suspects determine whether someone is home by walking up to the front door and knocking. If no one answers, the suspects break windows to get inside.

In an Oct. 18 burglary in the Devonshire Division, the suspects tied up three people who walked in on the crime.

``They walked in on this burglary in progress,'' Broad said. ``The burglars put them in the closet and stole their property. One of the victims was struck in back of the neck with a shotgun butt,'' Broad said.

Police got their first breaks in October, when an LAPD Pacific Division patrol officer spotted suspects in the front of a home. Ultimately, two adults and a teen-ager were arrested after police traced a stolen cellular phone.

Detective David Strake of Pacific Division said that the suspects have hit about 30 times this year in the area around Westchester and Playa del Rey - all during daytime hours.

Then on Nov. 23, an officer on patrol north of Westchester saw suspects walking between houses and a car in the area after being flagged by a resident, Strake said. Two suspects were arrested, including the reputed ringleader, who was identified as Darren Elliott, 27, of South Central Los Angeles, officials said.

While police were tracking the ring targeting mansion homes, they ran into three other suspects whom they arrested in an unrelated string of burglaries in the Valley, Bella said.

On Nov. 5, investigators arrested Anthony Vu, 19, of Chatsworth, Phillip Pak, 20, of Northridge, and Tia Tyler Lu, 22, of Granada Hills, officials said.