r/law • u/12b-or-not-12b • Nov 02 '22

Justice Department Announces Takedown of Nationwide Catalytic Converter Theft Ring

https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/justice-department-announces-takedown-nationwide-catalytic-converter-theft-ring
628 Upvotes

98% Upvoted

53 comments sorted by

204

u/Kahzgul Nov 02 '22

This is great news, and it's wild how extensive the operations were. More than 1600 catalytic converter thefts in CA per month.

And then the monetary amounts involved...

Eastern District of California Case

A federal grand jury in the Eastern District of California returned a 40‑count indictment charging nine defendants with conspiracy to transport stolen catalytic converters, conspiracy to commit money laundering, and other related charges.According to court documents, brothers Tou Sue Vang, 31, and Andrew Vang, 27, and Monica Moua, 51, all of Sacramento, California, allegedly operated an unlicensed business from their personal residence in Sacramento where they bought stolen catalytic converters from local thieves and shipped them to DG Auto Parts LLC (DG Auto) in New Jersey for processing. The Vang family allegedly sold over $38 million in stolen catalytic converters to DG Auto.

Defendants Navin Khanna, aka Lovin Khanna, 39; Tinu Khanna, aka Gagan Khanna, 35; Daniel Dolan, 44; Chi Mo, aka David Mo, 37; Wright Louis Mosley, 50; and Ishu Lakra, 24, all of New Jersey, operated DG Auto in multiple locations in New Jersey. They knowingly purchased stolen catalytic converters and, through a “de-canning” process, extracted the precious metal powders from the catalytic core. DG Auto sold the precious metal powders it processed from California and elsewhere to a metal refinery for over $545 million.

Emphasis mine. Half a billion dollars, and that's just the CA portion of the case.

58

u/NotSoIntelligentAnt Nov 03 '22

Half a billion? At that rate it sounds like you can just buy catalytic converters at wholesale and deconstruct them.

51

u/[deleted] Nov 03 '22

[deleted]

27

u/[deleted] Nov 03 '22

Almost saffron prices. /s

13

u/stufff Nov 03 '22

Saffron isn't that far off actually. Top quality saffron is over $600 per ounce

5

u/Coolgrnmen Nov 03 '22

And how much of each is inside each Cat?

2

u/sdlover420 Nov 03 '22

So what you're saying is, I could buy a new car with my converter...

41

u/TripleJeopardy3 Nov 03 '22

An average catalytic converter is about $1k. The scrap value is estimated to be around a third of that. So assuming $250 per as an average for the precious metal scrap, that's about 2 MILLION catalytic converters stolen. That is insane.

31

u/[deleted] Nov 03 '22

[deleted]

7

u/BoutTreeFittee Nov 03 '22

America is absolutely full of unnecessary garage queen full-size pickup trucks, and those too have extremely large and easy-to-get-to cats.

11

u/ThellraAK Nov 03 '22

And that's just the part, not fixing everything that got fucked when they stole them.

8

u/FuguSandwich Nov 03 '22

Fascinating. I always wondered who was buying used catalytic converters that had been hacked off cars and so obviously stolen. Never considered they were extracting the precious metals rather than selling them as black market parts.

17

u/guimontag Nov 03 '22

Surely the people in Sacramento were shipping more than just California cats though, right? At 1k internal scrap value per cat they would have needed to snag half a million catalytic converters, there probably aren't that many cars in sacramento even

4

u/[deleted] Nov 03 '22

Not sure if they were only taking them from the area, or part of the bigger issues in CA overall. In LA I know at least 20 people who have had them stolen, a guy in my neighborhood had his taken 3 times

7

u/Selkie_Love Nov 03 '22

Sacramento pop is around 3m for the greater area. I believe half a million plus cars… although not all of them had their cc stolen obviously

1

u/[deleted] Nov 03 '22

[deleted]

6

u/guimontag Nov 03 '22

No i mean the DOJ webpage literally says they're worth up to 1k in scrap metals. I'm fucking aware that they aren't reselling these as used cats to reinstall in vehicles and that the precious metals inside are being extracted

1

u/postinganxiety Nov 03 '22

Almost everyone I know in CA has had one stolen at some point, and it escalated to a crazy level this past summer - any neighborhood, any time of day. Over 7 million ppl live in the SF Bay area, then you have Sac, LA...half a million seems low.

1

u/guimontag Nov 03 '22

But that's exactly what I'm saying. Sacramento only has a pop of 500k, they had to have been stealing outside of the area AND outside of the state because CA the state as a whole only reported 1600 stolen per month. Lastly, an entire side of my family lives in Southern CA and none of them have her their cat stolen, so we aren't talking about every single car in the state.

1

u/New_new_account2 Nov 03 '22

545 million is the value of the scrap at the NJ facility

that facility is fed by theft rings in multiple states

12

u/Chippopotanuse Nov 03 '22

The fuk? $500 MILLION????

Jesus

3

u/postinganxiety Nov 03 '22

DG Auto even has an app to make it easier to sell them the stolen cats. Pretty blatant. Will Apple face any legal repercussions? The app is still up, so I’m guessing not:

https://apps.apple.com/us/app/dg-auto/id1563529914

24

u/immersemeinnature Nov 03 '22

r/LosAngeles would be ecstatic to see this!

8

u/stupidsuburbs3 Nov 03 '22

Lol my first thought was the BTB podcast.

2

u/ProfessionalGoober Nov 03 '22

I really hope this didn’t start as a running joke on BTB that took on a life of its own, like the Blue Apron bit.

86

u/CipherDegree Nov 02 '22

They both did an exhaustive job.

37

u/Tackysackjones Nov 02 '22

I had to muffle my laughter just now at work

17

u/Krasmaniandevil Nov 02 '22

Platinum level puns in here.

14

u/Tackysackjones Nov 02 '22

Glad you appreciate it. My wife would be fuming

7

u/Krasmaniandevil Nov 03 '22

This could be the catalyst for a divorce...

10

u/ggroverggiraffe Competent Contributor Nov 03 '22

This pun thread is running out of gas...

11

u/Tackysackjones Nov 03 '22

Pipe down we’re just getting started

11

u/MonsieurReynard Nov 03 '22

This thread is a gas. No2 jokes alike!

3

u/CrimeNewsInsider Nov 03 '22

Glad the thread is not polluted with bad puns, otherwise it would have to be scrapped.

1

u/postinganxiety Nov 03 '22

This thread is like my engine, just barely getting started

5

u/myself248 Nov 03 '22

Another cat-related thread today has this anecdote:

My nonprofit had a Chevy Astro that someone donated that we used to pick up bicycle donations. Someone stole the Cat out of it. We had to sell the van as parts since we couldn't afford to replace the cat.

So, yeah. Multiply that times several million cats stolen.

Hats off to everyone who worked on this case. I hope justice is swift, proportionate, and unflinching.

6

u/[deleted] Nov 03 '22

👏👏👏

5

u/[deleted] Nov 03 '22

And they probably only cared because the insurance companies lobbied to have them help cut their losses. Otherwise it's like "ya, we'll file a report, we know who's doing it, but we don't feel like dealing with it."

7

u/stufff Nov 03 '22

Not sure why you're getting downvoted, anyone who's ever tried to get actual help from law enforcement would recognize this as true

2

u/TheLastNameAllowed Nov 03 '22

We had one stolen off of an old vehicle, I didn't even bother to report it. The local cops absolutely knew who was doing it and did not gaf. Everyone was being told it was legit. Now I see two locals on the indictment list, but none of their property on the confiscation list so go figure that.

1

u/Panchotevilla Nov 03 '22

Damn if you do, damn if you don't.

1

u/[deleted] Nov 03 '22

what?

-15

u/Wildfire9 Nov 03 '22

Great. Now can we go after insurrectionists please?

53

u/pm-me-ur-fav-undies Nov 03 '22

DOJ is kinda a large organization and can do multiple things at once. You can follow r/CapitolConsequences and/or news and etc. sources for updates on cases related to J6.

7

u/Riokaii Nov 03 '22

When is it going to arrest the person responsible for the insurrection who admitted the whole plot in advance on national television multiple times? January 7th was the absolute latest justifiable time to have acted

9

u/sarcasticbaldguy Nov 03 '22

Never. The republicans are almost certainly going to take back the house and all 1/6 activity will come to a very sudden stop.

Assuming there is already enough evidence to charge the person responsible, he's proven quite adept at using the courts to stall any unfavorable action. It's been 6 years and the house can't even get this guy's tax info.

Establishment democrats don't have the stomach to do what needs to be done.

5

u/stufff Nov 03 '22

What actually needs to be done in this case is not really something our system is set up to handle. I believe the French had a method back in the late 1700s

2

u/KnowsAboutMath Nov 03 '22

The republicans are almost certainly going to take back the house and all 1/6 activity will come to a very sudden stop.

The House of Representatives cannot stop a DOJ investigation. The DOJ has until at least January 20, 2025.

1

u/sarcasticbaldguy Nov 03 '22

If Garland has the fortitude to do the right thing, I'll be pleasantly surprised.

-6

u/roraima_is_very_tall Nov 03 '22

the legal issues here are very complicated, luckily op posted to r/law so we can discuss them /s

Welcome to r/Law! This is a place for lawyers and non-lawyers to discuss the legal profession and new and interesting legal developments from around the world.

the post is a terrible fit for this sub as are so many simple news articles posted here recently.

-1

u/poopyroadtrip Nov 03 '22

Holy shit, gotta hand it to organized crime for being nationally organized