JACKSONVILLE, Fla. -- The man accused of leading a mail and identity theft ring pleaded guilty in the middle of his trial to the charges and was sentenced to 10 years in prison.

Keith Ivey, 33, pleaded guilty to two charges under the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organization Act, along with numerous counts of criminal use of personal information, grand theft and forgery, Attorney General Charlie Crist announced Friday.

Prosecutors said that Ivey led an operation that stole mail from apartment complex mailboxes between June 2000 and December 2001, gathering personal information of more than 100 people in Jacksonville, Tallahassee and in Georgia.

Authorities alleged that Ivey used information from the stolen mail to open fraudulent credit accounts and forge checks.

"The invasive act of using mail from someone's personal mailbox to turn them into a victim is almost sinister in nature, and it is fortunate that we have legislation in place that addresses such an aggressive crime," Crist said.

Other members of the theft ring -- including former employees of the state Department of Financial Services and the Internal Revenue Service -- were already convicted and sentenced. Some of them had testified against Ivey before his surprise guilty plea.

The investigation was a joint effort of the U.S. Postal Inspector's Office, the U.S. Secret Service, the Florida Department of Law Enforcement and the Jacksonville Sheriff's Office. The case was prosecuted by the Attorney General's Office of Statewide Prosecution.