O’FALLON, ILL. • Lt. Robert Schmidtke could not resist cracking wise about the recent arrests here of three men and the seizure of thousands of gallons in alleged loot.

“They thought they were slick,” the O’Fallon, Ill., police detective punned.

Schmidtke declared that the arrests had broken up a suspected multistate ring trading in used grease and cooking oil stolen from restaurants throughout the St. Louis area.

The suspects — Bo Lin, 32, of Fairview Heights; Tuo Li, 25, of Chicago; and Kentvy Wong, 30, of Flushing, N.Y. — were arrested overnight July 16 at a barn here in the 900 block of Talon Drive. The building, police said, contained about 10,000 gallons of filched grease.

Schmidtke said the suspects had been selling it to rendering and biodiesel plants.

He said estimating the value of the grease was difficult, but that it easily exceeded $10,000. The National Renderers Association has estimated that grease sells nationally for about $3 a gallon.

On July 17, St. Clair County prosecutors charged the suspects with felony theft and the misdemeanor offense of waste storage without a permit. Bail for each was set at $50,000.