The Leon County, Florida Sheriff's office earlier this week of three area residents -- Tony Acreus, Jeremy Frazier and Timothy Johns -- for allegedly using stolen credit card numbers associated with the breach.

The arrests followed a three-month investigation of a major stolen credit card ring by the sheriff's office, the Tallahassee Police Department and the . , and said that the number of financial institutions affected by the breach now stands at more than 220.

A statement from the Leon County Sheriff's office said the three men were arrested after being caught using stolen credit card numbers to make fraudulent purchases at local stores. The three apparently used card information stolen from Heartland to "electronically encode VISA Gift Cards" which they would then use to purchase goods from retailers, the statement said. The goods were then sold for cash.

The combined amount of actual and attempted fraudulent transactions by the three exceeded $100,000, the sheriff's office said, adding that the investigation is ongoing and could result in additional charges and arrests.

Heartland is a Princeton, N.J.-based firm that processes payment card transactions for more than 250,000 merchants. On Jan. 20, it disclosed that unknown intruders had broken into its networks last year and stolen payment card transaction data. Although Heartland didn't disclose the number of card accounts that were compromised, outside estimates from analysts and people within the payment industry . That would make it by far the biggest payment card breach to date, surpassing the said were stolen in a breach disclosed in January 2007