2 Car Thieves Busted In Mentor Now Indicted In Federal Court

Curtis Wilder and John Jones are for their .

Now they may be facing time behind federal bars, as well.

Jones and Wilder, along with Jeff Harris and Michael Fitzgerald, have been indicted on counts of conspiracy, running a chop shop, trafficking in stolen motor vehicles and other charges.

They are scheduled to be arraigned at 12:30 p.m. today in Northern District of Ohio Judge Dan Aaron Polster's courtroom.

Their codefendants, Harris and Fitzgerald were already arraigned in May.

According to the indictment against them:

• Jones, Wilder, Harris and Fitzgerald are accused of running an auto theft ring and vehicle chop shop from January 2012 to March. They specialized in taking trailers, landscaping equipment, trucks and motorcycles.
• Wilder, who goes by the alias Zero, would identify vehicles they want to steal. Then, he and Jones would hotwire them. The duo took vehicles from Mentor, Willoughy, Euclid, Jackson Township, Springfield Township and other places throughout the region.
• They would then bring the vehicles back to a property that Harris had leased in Warrensville Heights for the purpose of being a chop shop.
• The quartet would scrap the vehicles and then sell the scrap -- sometimes leaving the state to do so.

Wilder and Jones were arrested by Mentor Police in March. Officers had tracked them to the Diamond Center shopping area where they attempted to steal a Ford F-250.

Police departments from Mentor, Solon, Twinsburg, Willoughby, Wickliffe and Bedford, as well as the Ohio State Highway Patrol and Cleveland FBI office had been tracking suspects in the ring for two weeks before the arrest.

After Jones and Wilder were arrested, they raided the chop shop in Warrensville Heights.

All four suspects have been charged with operating a chop shop, conspiracy, trafficking in stolen motor vehicles and motor vehicle parts, as well as three counts of altering or removing a vehicle's identification.

Wilder and Harris also face a charge of theft from an interstate shipment. Specifically, they are accused of taking of taking $180,000 worth of stolen steel springs from Twinsburg to Michigan.

The grand jury indictment against the suspects has been attached to this story as a PDF.