Think It’s Just Petty Theft? The Shocking Scale of Catalytic Converter Theft Gangs

A catalytic converter is a tubular component (or, “doo-dad”) connected to your exhaust that rests underneath your car. It’s job is to reduce emissions. It does this by filtering out pollutants from your engine with the help of precious metals. The precious metals, Rhodium, Platinum, and Palladium, help break up harmful molecules emitted in your exhaust.

These precious metals have seen a sharp uptick in value over the past several years as their scaricty and, in turn, their demand, increases.

Platinum now sells for $1,100 per ounce; Palladium more than $2,500 per ounce, and Rhodium more than $23,000 per ounce.

Catalytic converters in a typical passenger vehicle may contain a total of about 2/10ths of an ounce of these three metals, while those in larger vehicles and trucks may have up to an ounce.

Catalytic converters (CAT for short) are relatively easy for criminals to steal because they are accessible from the underside of a vehicle and can be sawed off with no specialized equipment. Converters can be removed from a vehicle in as little as 90 seconds. For victims, replacing a CAT can cost over $3,000.

CAT burgulars target low lit driveways, street parked cars, and business lots where fleets of vehicles may be parked.

Bigger Than Petty Theft

When we read the headlines of catalytic converter theft, we naturally assume these offenses are being committed by low level criminals.

Dudes who probably want to make a quick buck by hacking off catalytic converters in the dark of night and selling them to junk yards for a few hundred bucks.

But you’d be surprised to learn that the illegal catalytic converter industry operates similarly to prohibition-era mobs, with organized hierarchies of thieves, and national distribution networks.

Trickle-Down System

The schemes that have been conducted nationwide all follow the same playbook.

It starts by employing small networks of runners low level criminals who are assigned local areas and deployed daily to go out and steal catalytic converters.

The thieves work in tandem with higher-ranking managerial conspirators who organize distribution networks.

Thieves may bring in tens of hundreds of new catalytic converters from a run. Once they have the products, the higher-ups distribute them to car shops that strip the doo-dads down to their precious metals which are then sold to metal refineries.

At the procurement level, the criminal operations are fragmentary and sloppy. But as distribution networks expand, they quickly ballon into million dollar grifts.

Connecticut Cases

In Connecticut, the feds recently nabbed Alexander Kolitsas,Bryant Bermudez,Mervin Figueroa, Michael Almodovar and Yanquee Rodriguez for their involvement in a massive catalytic converter theft operation that generated hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Kolitsas owned “Downpipe Depot & Recycling LLC,” located in east hartford. The LLC has since dissolved.

Figueroa, Michael Almodovar and Yanquee Rodriguez, among others, were the runners who would go out and steal catalytic converters.

From there, Kolitsas would arrange for the converters to be sold in New York and New Jersey.

Kolitsas would meet his runners and others involved in the conspiracy after hours, regularly meeting at his parents restaurant in Middlebury, “Maples.”

Court documents reveal text messages where Kolitsas recommended targeting Hondas and Acuras “Overall the safest bet would be Honda and Acuras” he texted to one of his runners.

He would buy the converters from runners for ~$300, and sell them in bulk for tens of thousands, sometimes hundreds of thousands of dollars at a time.

A  $545 million Case

In 2022, Federal prosecutors took down a national operation involving over 21 individuals across 5 states, who are allegedly responsible for $545 Million in restitution.

That’s over half a billion in catalytic converter thefts alone!

To put things into perspective, the Cheesecake factory’s value has hovered around $500m, as well as GoPro’s value.

The FBI alleges that over 1,600 catalytic converters were being stolen monthly in California alone.

According to the FBI and court records, thieves were selling thousands of pounds of catalytic converters for millions of dollars at a time to auto shops and refineries.

The scheme spanned across state lines hitting CA, NJ, and NY.