A multi-department operation led to the arrest of seven defendants for their involvement in a multilevel criminal enterprise centered on stealing smoke detectors from The Home Depot, according to Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier.

The Sunshine State’s Office of Agricultural Law Enforcement investigators uncovered at least 44 smoke detector thefts at The Home Depot locations across 17 Florida counties.

The Home Depot estimates total losses at more than $800,000.

Law enforcement recovered $78,000 in stolen merchandise during the execution of a search warrant at a storage unit in Hillsborough County. The location is believed to be one of the stops along the trafficking route, before ultimately ending up at a large Houston, Texas, warehouse.

According to Agricultural Law Enforcement, an estimated $300,000 worth of product was located at the Texas facility during a search warrant execution by the Houston Police.

The defendants share a combined total of over 170 prior charges between them.

The thefts were committed at multiple locations in multiple Florida counties.

“Today’s announcement shows Florida means business when it comes to organized retail theft. Our Office of Agricultural Law Enforcement — working with local and state partners — led a months-long investigation that dismantled a major criminal enterprise stealing hundreds of thousands of dollars of products from Home Depot stores across our state,” said Commissioner of Agriculture Wilton Simpson.