STUART, Fla. — Eleven people were arrested in South Florida on charges of stealing 6,000 pounds of saw palmetto berries, a coveted dietary supplement ingredient, authorities said Wednesday.

According to arrest affidavits, the suspects face charges including harvesting saw palmetto berries without a permit or landowner permission, resisting arrest without violence, and dealing saw palmetto berries without a permit.

The Martin County Sheriff’s Office said that deputies had been tracking an “organized crime ring” that was targeting several counties in the Sunshine State. Ring members had been looking at private property, ranches and farmland in rural Martin County.

But this time, the suspects “took the wrong exit,” the sheriff’s department said in a news release.

In Florida, it is a felony for saw palmetto berries to be harvested without a permit, TCPalm.com reported. The plant was designated as “commercially exploited” in Florida.

According to the news outlet, the extract from ripe berries is used as a nutritional supplement in the United States. Prescriptions of the extract in Europe are used to treat prostate and urinary problems.

The berries are ripe from August to November in Florida and attract people seeking to cash in on the fruit, WPTV reported.

Martin County Sheriff he said in a news conference that an anonymous person called 911 on Aug. 11 about a U-Haul on the side of the road. The caller said approximately 10 people were wearing all black and carrying buckets.

“Because of the time of year, and the crime trends we’ve had the last several years, we knew this was potentially an organized group of saw palmetto berry pickers,” Budensiek told reporters.

Deputies followed the van and observed people loading bags into the vehicle, the sheriff said. The van then stopped at a Quality Inn in downtown Stuart, where bags of saw palmetto berries were transferred into a larger U-Haul van.

“As anticipated, they struck -- but instead of moving into a berry bounty, they walked right into a bountiful bust,” the sheriff’s office wrote on social media.

According to an arrest affidavit, detectives discovered eight bags in one van and 30 bags in the other vehicle. Each bag weighed approximately 200 pounds.

Nine of the detainees were undocumented, the sheriff’s office said. Ten remain in jail; one person was a boy who was in custody of the Sheriff’s Office for two days until his aunt came to get him, Budensiek said.

The berries were returned to the rancher.

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