The cars were late-model luxury SUVs, Cadillac Escalades, Jaguars, and Mercedes, perhaps 500 or more stolen through a sophisticated ring of thieves and locksmiths working in every borough in New York, reregistered in chop-shop garages, and then sold on the black market in states across the Eastern seaboard and in the Dominican Republic.

Early yesterday morning, 17 alleged members of the luxury auto theft ring were arrested in a sweep of three states – New York, Pennsylvania, and Virginia – as the finale to an elaborate 10-month sting operation conducted by the New York Police Department in concert with the Queens district attorney, Richard Brown.

The operation was dubbed “Gone in 60 Seconds,” named after the automobile action film in which Nicolas Cage plays a master car thief who must steal 48 cars without being caught. The idea for the name, police said, came from a DVD copy of the film found in the backseat of a recovered car.

“While this crime ring was clever, they weren’t nearly as sophisticated as the police offers tracking them,” the police commissioner, Raymond Kelly, said at a joint news conference yesterday.

Police would not disclose how detectives were first tipped off about the car thefts, but said that through two street informants in Queens officers were able to lure the alleged leader of the crime ring, Yamil Abraham, 37, to use a storage garage in Long Island City, where a team of workers would alter the cars and change the vehicle identification numbers.

In fact, the garage was being rented by undercover police officers who had also installed video cameras and microphones.

Mr. Kelly said the theft ring has been in operation for more than two years and may be responsible for the potential theft of up to 500 automobiles from around the tri-state area. In the 10 months the Police Department monitored the crime ring, Mr. Kelly said 54 cars were stolen, a collection worth $2.5 million.

Mr. Abraham was charged with enterprise corruption and selling an undercover officer two semi-automatic weapons – a laser-equipped 9 mm Luger carbine, and a 9-mm pistol – for $4,000. If convicted, Mr. Abraham stands to face 25 years in prison.

According to city police statistics recorded through October, the number of automobile thefts has decreased more than any other type of felony, including robberies and assaults, dropping more than 10% compared to the same period last year.