A federal grand jury in Roanoke has charged 10 men and one woman with conspiracy, bank fraud and other charges in connection with the theft of more than $40,000 from a Botetourt County bank.

U.S. Attorney John Brownlee on Friday called the group "one cell of a major Mexican organization" that provides members fake ID cards so they can cash stolen checks.

The simple scheme has cost banks more than $50 million over several years in at least seven states, Brownlee said. The investigation is continuing and could be expanded, the prosecutor said, declining to elaborate further.

Botetourt County sheriff's deputies arrested the woman and nine of the men March 7 after authorities say they attempted to cash stolen payroll checks at Bank of Botetourt branches in Buchanan and Daleville. A 10th man has not yet been arrested.

At a news conference Friday, Brownlee said the 10 people arrested by Botetourt authorities were recruited in California by the leaders of the alleged criminal organization and sent to Nashville, Tenn., to receive further instructions. Investigators say they think the group was told to use a cellphone camera to take pictures of each person, which were sent electronically to California and used to forge fake driver's licenses and other forms of identification, Brownlee said.

The organization's usual method is to have its members go to the headquarters of a construction-type business, ask to use the bathroom to get into the building, then jimmy a window so it can be easily opened later, authorities have said.

After the office has closed, they break in and steal blank payroll checks from the bottom of a pile. The checks are made out to the names on the fake IDs and cashed at a bank.

That's what authorities say the organization did to Scott-Gallaher Co., a heavy-equipment firm in Cloverdale. On March 4, federal authorities allege, the people named in the indictments cashed $40,668.33 worth of forged Scott-Gallaher payroll checks at Bank of Botetourt branches in Botetourt and Roanoke counties.

According to the indictment, the group tried again March 7, but this time bank tellers were aware of a possible scheme and alerted the Botetourt County Sheriff's Office.

The indictment handed down Thursday lists charges against Hector Cruz-Hernandez, 30; Jose Julian Tovar-Pina, 39; Jose Ismael Quevado-Guardado, 29; Jose Luis Santillan-Rodriguez, 23; Carlos Ruiz-Rocha, 20; Ernesto Alonso Navarro-Segovia, 28; Manuel Lopez-Perez, 24; Arnoldo Munguia-Verdusco, 52; Ivan Paul Sanchez, 23; Alejandra Aragon-Macias; and Anthony Tovar-Pina, who is still at large.

The indictment alleges that Anthony Tovar-Pina provided the others the fake IDs. Nine of the 11 are in the country illegally, Brownlee said.

The indictment also alleges that after the arrests, money orders were mailed from California and Tennessee to the co-defendants while they were in jail to encourage them not to cooperate.

A different group of five men has been charged in Botetourt County with conducting a similar scheme in 2003 in which stolen payroll checks from Keagy Electric were cashed at Bank of Fincastle branches. Federal authorities aren't involved in that case at this time, said Assistant Botetourt County Commonwealth's Attorney Hilary Markham.