Johnson City police have arrested a half-dozen people in connection with a massive retail theft scheme in which tens of thousands of dollars in merchandise was stolen.

Authorities said the village police department's detectives launched an investigation last Tuesday into the operation.

According to a news release, police determined that several people - some of whom worked at the store - had schemed to steal nearly $80,000 from the business.

Detectives found the store employees worked with others not affiliated with the business to "facilitate large and unauthorized discounts" of merchandise. Some of the discounts were for as much as 99 percent.

A few incidents began occurring last November. The number of theft increased greatly in recent weeks, continuing into this month.

Johnson City police detectives worked with investigators from the company, which was not identified.

Police conducted surveillance at the store and observed several transactions while they were in progress.

Search warrants were executed for several homes and vehicles resulting in the recovery of some of the stolen merchandise.

The investigation into the scheme is continuing. Police said more search warrants are to be executed and more arrests are expected.

According to police, 23-year-old Damani Mizell of Binghamton, 25-year-old Lytiek Gadson of Binghamton, 27-year-old Andre Forbes of Binghamton and 22-year-old Alexzeya Brooks of Endicott have been charged with enterprise corruption and numerous grand larceny counts

Two others also were arrested in the case: 19-year-old Jaylen Sandiford of Vestal was charged with grand larceny and 20-year-old Orion Sandy of Binghamton was charged with petit larceny.

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Contact WNBF News reporter Bob Joseph: Email bob@wnbf.com or call (607) 545-2250. For breaking news and updates on developing stories, follow @BinghamtonNow on Twitter.

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