L.A.’s largest tag: the giant, half-mile-long “MTA” scrawl that appeared
last year along the concrete banks of the Los Angeles River near downtown.

In the macho, braggart, narcissistic world of Los Angeles tagging, no one can match the Metro Transit Assassins crew.

Authorities said the group is responsible for some of the city’s most notorious acts of vandalism, most notably L.A.’s largest tag: the giant, half-mile-long “MTA” scrawl that appeared last year along the concrete banks of the Los Angeles River near downtown.

But on Wednesday, authorities said they finally had arrested the MTA crew, including “Smear,” a well-known “graffiti artist” whose work has been sold in some downtown L.A. art galleries.

Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputies today arrested at least eight alleged members of the notorious Metro Transit Assassins tagging crew, some of whom are believed to be responsible for a several-blocks-long “MTA” tag in the concrete Los Angeles River bed that authorities say will cost millions of dollars to remove.

The arrests occurred during a series of early-morning raids centered in the Hollywood area. Among those detained for a parole violations is a famous tagger whose work “SMEAR” has has won acclaim in the art community.