Tonight a massive retail theft ring bust in New York, leading to 41 people arrested, authorities say it went much further than just petty shoplifting.

Our investigators seized more than 3.8 million dollars worth of stolen goods. - The investigation took nearly three years and involved teams from the NYPD and New York attorney general's office.

In a press conference New York attorney general Letitia James showed some of the stolen merchandise including gift cards designer clothes and accessories cosmetics and more.

The suspects are accused of selling the high-end items and drugstore merchandise online in an organized ring. - The workers in these stores have been terrorized.

Prosecutors say the alleged ring leader Ronnie Rubinoff directed teams to go after specific items to steal.

And allege Rubinoff even signed a lease on a warehouse in New York with plans to open a department store like facility stocked with stolen goods.

They're selling it a lot less expensive than it would be if it was bought in regular retail stores, and they're making 100 percent profit.

Rubinoff's attorney Daniel Gotlin tells NBC News his client runs a legitimate business has pleaded not guilty and intends to fight the charges.

Mayor Eric Adams who rode into office on an anti-crime campaign was at the presser as well. - Today is sending a strong message that we are not ignoring.

But it's not just New York, we've seen similar scenes across the country from Chicago to Atlanta to California.

We have taken down and are prosecuting a statewide organized retail theft ring, involving defendants who stole more than one million dollars.

Data on retail thefts nationwide is sparse, but the national retail federation's 2021 survey found these organized thefts cost retailers an average of 700 thousand dollars per billion dollars in sales.

Up significantly over the past few years a majority of respondents reported an increase in these thefts too.

I absolutely believe that knowing that there will be prosecution and arrests, the penalties can be higher, for organized crime will be a deterrent.

And Steven Romo is with me in the studio now, that was quite the bust, did they say anything else about the details of how the operation allegedly worked?

Yeah prosecutors did go into a few financial details, saying that they would steal this merchandise and sell it mostly on ebay and they said they made about 1.3 million dollars over five years.

But then they claimed they would use about 60 percent of those profits to pay thieves, to bring in even more merchandise, to keep that cycle going, and it lasted for a few years according to his prosecutors.

It's a lot more money than any of us I think realizes. - Yeah A lot on ebay of all places. - Yeah Steven thank you so much.