HOUSTON -- Local 2 Investigates auto repair shops that police said charged consumers for repairs that were never made.

Houston police spent the past two years infiltrating what they called a massive insurance fraud operation and Local 2 Investigates cameras were there when officers went to those shops on Wednesday.

"Today we cast our net out and brought in a pretty good bounty," Capt. David Watkins said.

Undercover detectives, backed up by patrol officers, launched simultaneous raids on four Houston auto body repair shops. Several people were arrested and box after box of financial records and computer hard drives were hauled away.

"The individuals that are involved in this are very organized," said Watkins. "They are very calculating in their methods."

John Fowler is the president of American Insurance Services. He is an expert in insurance fraud and was brought in to help HPD with its investigation.

Several insurance companies donated dozens of cars to HPD. Fowler's job was to bang the cars up with barbells and bump them with cattle guards. Fowler would then document the damage and estimate what it should cost to repair it.

Month after month, car after car was damaged and sent to one of the four targeted shops. Fowler estimated the average cost of the damage he did to each car between $1,000 and $1,500.

"Well, we'll see how it comes back," said Fowler, after banging up and Cadillac Escalade. "This should be fun. It's always different every time. It's never boring."

When detectives got the vehicles back from the repair shops Fowler would examine the vehicles.

"How much should this have cost?" Local 2 investigative reporter Robert Arnold asked.

"About $1,800," Fowler answered.

"And how much did they charge you?" asked Arnold.

"$3,800," answered Fowler.

Detectives said almost every car sent for repairs at one of these four shops was the same story.

"They figured eight hours to fix this and there was no damage to it," said Fowler after inspecting one SUV.

"So they charged you to repair something that wasn't actually damaged?" asked Arnold.

"It wasn't actually damaged," said Fowler.

Fowler said the shops did not even try to cover their tracks.

"You figure, if you're going to try to pass it off as a new part, you'd at least paint it," said Fowler.

"What does it show you that they are this careless?" Arnold asked

"That they've been doing it a long time and everybody connected is in on it, everybody," said Fowler.

In all, detectives sent nearly 50 cars through these four shops.

"Somewhere between $150,000 to $200,000 of inflated estimates," said Watkins.

That figure brings us back to Wednesday's raids.

Detectives arrested Ibrahim Eter, Salah El-Eter, Sam Said, Ricardo Gonzalez and Gus Said.

Investigators said all five men are the owners of the individual body shops. Detectives said they believe the men were working together.

Watkins said these arrests were far from the end of the investigation.

"It's going to take several months to work through the records, the individual records and the computer files and see exactly what we have," said Watkins.

Harris County prosecutor Lester Blizzard said his office is in the process of filing charges of engaging in organized criminal activity, insurance fraud and felony theft charges against the five men arrested.

More arrests are expected as the FBI, IRS and Texas Department of Public Safety are also involved in the investigation.

There is no regulation of the auto repair industry. The National Insurance Crime Bureau estimated that every family in the United States pays an extra $1,000 a year in insurance premiums to cover the cost of fraud.