Three arrests have been made in connection with 110 reports of spray-paint vandalism that occurred in Solvang and Santa Ynez in the weeks around Halloween.

Solvang was hit the hardest, with numerous places in alleys and the backs of buildings “tagged” with graffiti, all apparently by the same people.

Most of the taggings said “SYV South Side 13” or something similar before city maintenance crews went around and painted over them. The most noticeable graffiti was facing Copenhagen Drive, on a Rabobank kiosk next to the bank.

The kiosk was spray-painted some time on the night of Oct. 29 or early in the morning on Oct. 30. Ken Brock, manager of the Solvang branch, said the bank’s surveillance cameras look only at the ATM machine and did not capture any images of the vandals.

However, a surveillance camera did get some footage at the Nielsen’s Shopping Center a few days later.

“The recent taggings around the city took our city maintenance crews about eight hours to clean up,” said Tully Clifford, public works director.

The investigation gained some ground after Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s Department Deputy Brian Munana made the first arrest of a juvenile linked with a five-year investigation.

“With the information Munana was able to collect, he closed 13 cases in which this juvenile had been responsible for various tagging incidents in the past five years,” said Lt. Mark Liddi, who is in charge of the Solvang sheriff’s station.

Because the suspect is a juvenile, the department is not releasing his name. His age and hometown were not available, either.

He is not suspected in the Halloween wave of graffiti, Liddi said, but Deputy Joe Parker then developed some information in which several people were connected with this fall’s taggings throughout the Valley.

In serving two search warrants on Dec. 9, deputies found evidence of the crimes when searching two homes in Buellton and Solvang, Liddi said.

Sam Kelly, 18, of Solvang, Samuel Velasco, 20, of Buellton and a juvenile from Solvang were arrested in the days after the search warrants were served, Liddi said.

“It seems that the juvenile threw up some taggings that had reference to gangs, but he wasn’t in one,” Liddi said.

The Santa Barbara County District Attorney’s office will review the case against Kelly and Velasco, but a court date has not been set.

The juvenile associated with the recent taggings has been referred to Juvenile Probation for review, Liddi said. His name and age were not released.