At a press conference Tuesday in Buffalo, N.Y., New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo declared that his office has shut down a debt collection operation in Western New York that included at least 9 collection agencies owned by Tobias Boyland.

Cuomo stated that his office carried out search warrants on 4 of Boylands businesses and his residence early Tuesday morning. When investigators executed the warrant at Boylands home, they located a loaded gun, prompting the Erie County Sheriff to place him into custody. Boyland is a convicted felon and may face further weapons charges in Erie County.

Boylands operation was featured heavily in a Dateline NBC segment that publicized in March. Cuomo mentioned that a Dateline crew was present at one of the agencies raided Tuesday. The attorney generals office alleged that Boylands operation harassed and intimidated consumers into paying old debts by threatening jail time, posing as police officers and worse. According to Mitra Hormozi, special deputy chief of staff to the attorney general, These are some of the worst tactics we've seen.

"Plain and simple, this company was run by people who lied, bullied and preyed on vulnerable Americans struggling to resolve their financial situation," said Cuomo in a statement. "Pretending to be a police officer, threatening to throw consumers in jail - these practices are as despicable as they are illegal. My Office will continue to relentlessly root out these kinds of tactics and shut down unscrupulous companies that violate the rights of consumers across New York and the entire nation."

Cuomo said that Boylands debt collection operations in the Buffalo area had been shut down, including offices running under the names Central Resource Management, Final Claims Asset Locator's, Final Control Asset Locator's, Interchange Payment Solutions, Next Step Services, Portfolio Asset Assurance, Silverbay Services, and Teleport. As well as 3 others, " 2 with criminal records " associated to Boyland were named in the suit.

The attorney generals office declared in May that it had closed two collection agencies and subpoenaed 20 others in what they called a statewide inquisition into debt collection companies. Less than a week later, the office said that it had come to an agreement with three more collection agencies under investigation.

In June, Cuomo announced that his office will keep on investigating the countless deceptive practices that debt collection companies, debt settlement companies and others make use of as a means to exploit consumers who are already down on their luck.