According to the Monroe County Sheriff’s Office, dispatchers were alerted around 1 a.m. to a report of three stolen Jeep Wranglers possibly entering Monroe County from Ohio.

As of Friday, 15 people from Georgia, North Carolina and Ohio had been arrested. The investigation “spanned a total of 15 states,” officials from the Monroe County Sheriff’s Office said.

The scheme has reached across state lines, with one recent arrest made in Toledo, Ohio. Freeman said many of the suspects never set foot in Georgia, but face charges in Monroe County because that ...