17 accused in N.Y. railroad-theft case

MINEOLA, N.Y. — Investigators say the scheme spanned three years, uncoiling months before a blizzard whipped the region’s transit systems and continuing until two weeks ago, with the Metropolitan Transportation Authority still reeling from Hurricane Sandy.

Over that time, officials said Friday, 17 men, including 15 employees of the Long Island Rail Road, played a role in what has become a common and lucrative crime: stealing copper, a metal whose value has risen significantly. In thiscase, the men were accused of taking wire from a rail yard while on duty; using agency trucks to transport the material to personal vehicles; and selling the wire, for cash, to a local scrap-metal company - a routine that netted the group more than $250,000.

The 17 defendants were arrested Friday, the culmination of an investigation, called Operation Heavy Metal, led by the authority’s inspector general, Barry Kluger, who received a tip about the theft last year.

This was not the first illicit scheme at the railroad.Several retired workers have been charged in recent years with federal crimes for falsely claiming to be disabled to collect federal disability pensions - a plot that could have cost the Railroad Retirement Board, which awards disability pensions, more than $1 billion if all of the money had been disbursed.