Douglas County authorities have arrested six people in a major copper theft bust.

Sheriff Phil Miller tells WSB they've been working the case for three months after receiving a tip that the thieves were stealing copper from telephone wires.

"They're six of them:  four men, two women.  They would go to secluded areas in this county and other counties and use deer stands to climb the telephone poles and cut the cable," said Miller.

They would then melt it down and sell it.  Because of Georgia's tough new recycling laws, they had to go to North Carolina to make any money.

"They got about $3.50 to $4.00 a pound for the copper and they wound up selling about a ton of copper up there over a period of two to three months," said Miller.

The six would apparently do their work in the middle of the night and in areas with very little traffic.

"One of the suspects had just gotten out of prison in August, and that's how they were making a living and supporting their drug habits," said Miller.

Miller says the six also caused thousands of dollars of damage to AT&T, disrupted phone service in this county, Coweta County, and Carroll County over the last few months.

"They're charged under the RICO Statute and they are in jail without bond and they won't be bothering anybody else in any of those counties for quite a while," said Miller.

More arrests are possible.