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LOS ANGELES (AP) _ Twenty-three people have been arrested in an investigation of an insurance fraud ring that staged more than 125 auto collisions on Southern California freeways and scammed about $4 million from insurers and drivers, officials said Thursday.

A two-year investigation dubbed "Operation Freeway Squat" led to the arrests of 20 people Thursday on multiple counts of insurance fraud, state Insurance Commissioner John Garamendi said.

Three people alleged to be ringleaders, Ramon Alfonso Zanoletti, 52, his wife Magdalena Zanoletti, 51, of Santa Clarita, and chiropractor Clarence E. Franklin, 73, of Cathedral City, were arrested June 7, and face multiple counts of insurance fraud, Garamendi said.

The Zanolettis were in custody under house arrest Thursday, and Franklin posted bail June 12, awaiting trial, said Laureen Pedroza, the case's chief investigator.

About 600 people may have been involved in the ring, and the investigation continues, Garamendi spokesman Gary Gartner said.

Pedroza said an arrest warrant has been out since December 2004 for a man alleged to be the principal ringleader, Constantino Guillen Pineda. Officials believe he is in South America, she said.

No one was seriously injured in the collisions, which targeted commercial vehicles, sport utility vehicles and elderly drivers, Garamendi said.

Many of the collisions used the so-called "swoop and squat" technique, in which one driver would swerve, or "swoop," in front of another, causing that driver to brake suddenly, and the motorist behind to crash into the "squat" vehicle, according to the Department of Insurance.

Zanoletti, who worked in an attorney's office, allegedly paid "cappers" to stage the collisions, then obtained legal representation for people claiming injuries from the accidents.

Zanoletti would refer them to Franklin Chiropractic, where his wife worked as a clinic administrator, Garamendi said.

Franklin would allegedly sign off on bogus medical reports generated by Magdalena Zanoletti, who allegedly instructed patients to sign in for medical treatments that were never received.

"People would come in and they would have them sign with different colored pens, different dates, as many as 30 times," Gartner said.

The reports were submitted to the patients' attorneys for the purpose of filing and settling fake insurance claims, Garamendi said.