Authorities today announced the break up of a New Orleans gang that had been allegedly preying on at least 9 neighborhoods in and around Slidell, stealing from more than 200 unlocked vehicles.

Slidell Police Chief Randy Smith said they've been hit hard since May, but working with the NOPD and U.S. Marshall's they were able to finally round them up.

''They would find unlocked cars and go through them taking personal items, electronics, cameras, phones, currency and the item of choice appeared to be handguns,''  said Smith.

He says those stolen handguns were being sold on the streets of New Orleans.

Smith said they would "randomly select neighborhoods in the Slidell area checking for unlocked cars."

Five of the suspects were picked up in New Orleans and one in St. Tammany.   The Chief said he tried to warn residents to lock their vehicles, but added it's a hard lesson to learn.

The St. Tammany Parish Sheriff's Office was also part of the investigation.

"In early May, detectives with the St. Tammany Parish Sheriff's Office and Slidell Police began separately to notice a spike in car burglaries throughout the Slidell area," Sheriff's Capt. George Bonnett said in a news release.  "By the end of September, the agencies together had accumulated more than 200 vehicle burglary cases, concentrated mostly in Slidell neighborhoods."