NEW YORK (NYTIMES) - Eight men targeted Asian home owners for theft as part of an intricate multi-state burglary ring that preyed mainly on restaurant owners in New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania and Delaware, federal prosecutors said on Tuesday (May 25).

The defendants were accused of rifling through cars parked at family-owned Asian restaurants to identify addresses and affixing tracking devices in order to follow victims home, according to a complaint filed in United States District Court in Newark, New Jersey.

At other times, they targeted homes in heavily populated Asian communities.

More than 50 residences in at least four states were ransacked, and jewellery, weapons and thousands of dollars in currency from the US and Asian countries were stolen between late 2016 and the spring of 2019.

George M. Crouch Jr, the special agent in charge of the Federal Bureau of Investigation office in Newark, called it a "brazen conspiracy based on stereotype and opportunity".

The arrests come as the country is confronting a rising tide of anti-Asian bias and attacks on homes and businesses that have shaken Asian Americans and left many feeling vulnerable to unprovoked violence.

"It is fitting that these arrests come at a time when society is raising awareness regarding crimes against our Asian American citizens," Mr Crouch said in a statement.

The defendants were charged with conspiracy to transport stolen property across state lines, but were not accused of federal hate crimes.

Still, law enforcement officials found notes containing "derogatory descriptive terms to identify the ethnicity of the homeowners", the New Jersey US attorney's office said in a statement.

Several of the suspects were granted bail during a videoconference hearing on Tuesday afternoon, but others were held while awaiting trial.

Several of their lawyers said they had just gotten the complaint and had not had a chance to review the charges with their clients.

One lawyer, Mr Michael Rosas, argued that his client should be released.

"He's trying to change his life," Mr Rosas told the judge. "This is something that happened two years ago. He's presumed innocent."

In denying bail, magistrate judge James B. Clark III noted the seriousness of the charges.

"People's homes are their castles and when homes are invaded by burglars, I can't conceive of too many things that are more troubling, more invasive," Judge Clark said.

After identifying homes owned by people of Asian descent, the men would surveil the property and enter when they thought no one was home, often using ladders to climb through unlocked second-storey windows, prosecutors said.

The device used to track vehicles to some of the homes that the defendants burglarised was created from magnets and cellular telephones, according to the criminal complaint.

Three of the men charged were arrested during "burglaries in process" in Old Bridge, New Jersey, and Hazlet, New Jersey, the authorities said.

In at least two incidents, the homes were not empty when intruders entered.

In December 2018, an Asian resident of a home in Kenilworth, New Jersey, fought with a male intruder, who dropped a walkie-talkie that the authorities said contained traces of DNA that helped lead to the arrests.

Investigators interviewed a participant in the burglary ring who told them that the thieves would search the Internet for Indian and Chinese restaurants.

Their owners were targeted, according to the complaint, "because it was believed that the victims kept large sums of currency and jewellery in their residences".

University of Pittsburgh School of Law professor Lu-in Wang, who has studied crimes of opportunity against Asians, said choosing victims based on perceived stereotypes could justify bias-crime charges.

Thieves, she said, might assume that Asian restaurant workers would be likely to have cash or valuable jewellery stored in their homes or would be reluctant to involve the police because of language barriers.

"We're targeting you because we think you're an easy target," she said. "That can make people feel even more vulnerable than 'We're choosing you based on hate'."

In one January 2019 burglary in Eatontown, New Jersey, that was part of the multi-state conspiracy, the home owner, an Asian business owner, reported the loss of US$500,000 (S$662,000) in cash, as well as jewellery and a purse.

The month before, residents of two homes in Queens, New York, reported thefts of property worth more than US$100,000 and US$78,000 that were later linked to the burglary ring.

"These defendants were part of a sophisticated, multi-state burglary crew that targeted the homes of business owners of Asian descent," Rachael A. Honig, the acting US attorney for New Jersey, said in a statement.