
 
 Officials said the "person of interest" detained early Monday in connection with a string of more than 50 deliberately set fires has been arrested and is expected to be booked on arson charges later in the afternoon. 
 
 N o new arsons have been reported since the suspect was taken into custody, but police stressed that the investigation is ongoing. 
 
 The fires have caused $2 million in damage, authorities said. 
 
 MAP: Arson fires 
 
 At a news conference Monday, officials said the arson task force is sifting through about 100 clues in the case. 
 
 Los Angeles Police Chief Charlie Beck, interviewed at the Rose Parade by City News Service, said: "I feel very good that we've got the right guy. [The suspect] had the right stuff in his van, and we are very confident we found our man.'' 
 
 The suspect is a native of Germany who may have been in dispute with federal immigration officials, sources said. 
 
 PHOTOS: Arson fires 
 
 The man appears to have been battling the U.S. government over the immigration status of a relative, but the officials said they don't know if this played any role in the arson case. The Los Angeles Police Department is in communication with federal immigration officials concerning the dispute, the law enforcement sources said. 
 
 LAPD detectives found materials inside the man's minivan that could have been used to set fires, the sources said. 
 
 All the sources spoke on the condition of anonymity because the case is ongoing. 
 
 FULL COVERAGE: Arson fires 
 
 Little is known about the suspect. Sources said the minivan had Canadian license plates but that detectives say the man is from Germany. 
 
 The man was detained near a drugstore at the corner of Fairfax Avenue and Sunset Boulevard early Monday morning, according to a witness to the incident. 
 
 Several sources said the man is believed to be the same person seen in a surveillance video released by police Sunday, when authorities pointed to the individual as a "person of interest" in the case. ||||| When the man police have identified as a "person of interest" in Los Angeles' spate of recent arson attacks was sitting in the back of a squad car early Monday morning, a small group of witnesses gave him "the finger"-- and he returned the gesture with a smile, one witness said. 
 
 "It was creepy," said Rick Savage, a music producer who saw the incident at the intersection of Sunset Boulevard and Fairfax Avenue. 
 
 Savage said he was awake because he has been nervous about the string of arsons in recent days in his and other nearby neighborhoods. He said he had downloaded a police scanner application onto his iPad and went to the area at about 3:15 a.m. after hearing reports that authorities had tracked a person of interest in the case. 
 
 MAP: Arson fires 
 
 "For the past three nights, it's been freaking me out," Savage said of the fires. 
 
 Aaron Arellano, who works the graveyard shift at a gas station across from where authorities stopped a blue minivan with the man inside, said that at first there were only three squad cars near the minivan. 
 
 Then "little by little" more police and fire vehicles arrived until there was a mass of about two dozen on Sunset Boulevard, said the 28-year-old Arrelano. He said police officers -- some of whom came into the gas station for coffee -- told him they had caught "one of the arsonists." 
 
 PHOTOS: Arson fires 
 
 Earlier Monday morning, police had stationed patrol cars throughout the affected areas and for a while set up checkpoints at some intersections. 
 
 There were so many patrol cars and officers involved in the hunt that at one point Monday morning there were more than a dozen squad cars from the LAPD's Central Division on Ventura Boulevard, called in for additional help. 
 
 The cars were stopped near one of the recent fires that had destroyed a car parked outside a single-family home on Sunnyslope Avenue in Sherman Oaks. 
 
 RELATED: 
 
 FULL COVERAGE: Arson fires 
 
 Suspect arrested in string of fires 
 
 Police examine immigration link to case 
 
 -- Ari Bloomekatz in Hollywood 
 
 Photo: Police investigate a minivan officials say may be linked to a series of arson fires. Credit: Rick Loomis / Los Angeles Times 
 
 Map: Shows locations of fires possibly linked to recent arson spree. Credit: Los Angeles Times
– The "person of interest" detained earlier today in Los Angeles' string of arsons has been arrested, reports the Los Angeles Times. "I feel very good that we've got the right guy," says LA Police Chief Charlie Beck. He "had the right stuff in his van, and we are very confident we found our man.'' Indeed, there have been no new fires since the suspect was detained. Police say that the suspect is a German who was embroiled in a fight with federal immigration authorities. Meanwhile, sources tell the Times that they spotted the suspect in the back of a police cruiser, and a number of them flipped him the bird—a gesture he returned with an eerie smile. "It was creepy," says a music producer who witnessed the exchange. Click for more on the case.