Federal authorities have arrested five more men accused of taking part in a 21st-century bank heist that siphoned a whopping $45 million out of ATMs around the world in a matter of hours.

Prosecutors said the men charged on Monday were members of the New York-based cell of a global operation and contributed to the $45 million theft by illegally withdrawing $2.8 million from 140 different ATMs in that city. The arrests came after the defendants sent $800,000 in cash proceeds in a suitcase transported by bus to a syndicate kingpin located in Florida, US Attorney for the Eastern District of New York Loretta E. Lynch said. Photos seized from one defendant's iPhone showed huge amounts of cash piled on a hotel bed and being stuffed into luggage, she said.

The heists took place during two dates in December 2012 and targeted payment cards issued by the National Bank of Ras Al-Khaimah PSC in the United Arab Emirates and the Bank of Muscat in Oman respectively. Prosecutors dubbed the heists "unlimited" operations because they systematically removed the withdrawal limits normally placed on debit card accounts. These restrictions work as a safety mechanism that caps the amount of loss that banks normally face when something goes wrong. The operation removed the limits by hacking into two companies that processed online payments for the two targeted banks, prosecutors alleged in earlier indictments. Prosecutors didn't identify the payment processors except to say that one was in India and the other was in the United States.

The five newly arrested men were identified as Anthony Diaz, 24, Saul Franjul, 24, Saul Genao, 24, Jaindhi Polanco, 29, and Jose Angeley Valerio, 25, all of Yonkers, NY. They were named in addition to the earlier indictment of eight men including suspect Alberto Yusi Lajud-Peña, who reportedly was shot dead while playing dominoes during what authorities believe was a botched robbery of his Dominican Republic home.

According to Lynch's office:

During the first operation, on December 22, 2012, hackers penetrated a credit card processor’s computer network, compromised prepaid debit card accounts of the National Bank of Ras Al-Khaimah PSC, also known as RAKBANK, and operated a coordinated ATM withdrawal campaign. In total, more than 4,500 ATM transactions were conducted in approximately 20 countries around the world, resulting in approximately $5 million in losses. In the second and even more damaging Unlimited Operation, which occurred on February 19-20, 2013, the hackers compromised prepaid debit card accounts associated with Bank Muscat and operated a coordinated ATM withdrawal campaign. Over the course of approximately 10 hours, cybercells in 24 countries withdrew about $40 million from ATMs. As alleged, as part of the RAKBANK and Bank Muscat campaigns, Diaz, Franjul, Genao, Polanco, and Valerio operated the New York cell of “cashers,” who fanned out across the New York area to make thousands of withdrawals from ATMs. During the two operations, over the course of a few hours, the defendants and their co-conspirators withdrew approximately $2.8 million at over 140 different ATM locations in New York City. The defendants sent the bulk of the cash proceeds back to the organizers of the attacks. As alleged in court filings and captured in a photograph seized from a conspirator’s iPhone, on March 2, 2013, just days after the Bank Muscat Unlimited Operation, defendant Franjul packed approximately $800,000 in cash into luggage destined for the late Alberto Yusi Lajud-Peña, who was then in Miami. Franjul’s co-conspirators took the cash-filled luggage on a bus to Florida, where they gave the cash to Lajud-Peña, who later fled to the Dominican Republic. New York cell members also used the funds to celebrate at high-priced nightclubs and go on shopping sprees for luxury goods, such as expensive watches and cars, many of which have been seized in the course of this investigation.

If convicted, the men face a maximum sentence of 7.5 years in prison for the charge of access device fraud conspiracy, fines of $250,000, and forfeiture of any illegal proceeds. They are scheduled to be arraigned in federal court on Monday afternoon.