Police in Beaverton, Oregon, said they culminated a monthslong investigation of a catalytic converter trafficking ring that moved $22 million in merchandise by charging 14 suspects, including the alleged leader.
Last week, police searched eight locations, which included Brennan Doyle’s home in Lake Oswego, Oregon.
At Mr. Doyle’s home, police said they found 3,000 catalytic converters, hundreds of thousands of dollars in cash, a “high-end vehicle” and jewelry.
Police allege that, since January 2021, Mr. Doyle had trafficked more than 44,000 stolen catalytic converters with an approximate street value of $22 million.
“This business was turning millions of dollars worth of profit in catalytic converters. You need an organization and multiple people to do that,” Beaverton police spokesperson Matt Henderson told the Oregonian.
Authorities say the operation, which included both the theft of catalytic converters from people’s vehicles and fencing said converters, “was centered in the Portland Metropolitan area, spanned over six Oregon counties, and reached into the states of Washington, Nevada, California, Texas, and New York,” according to the Beaverton Police Department’s news release.
The operation was shipping the stolen converters from the West Coast to the East Coast as well as internationally, the Oregonian reported.
The police investigation began in late 2021 when they learned Tanner Lee Hellbusch, a member of the criminal conspiracy, was running an illegal operation to fence stolen catalytic converters.
On March 1, 2022, Mr. Hellbusch’s vehicle was stopped by police. When the car was searched, officers found more than 100 stolen converters worth approximately $80,000, police said.
From there, Beaverton police said they determined that Mr. Hellbusch and Mr. Doyle, along with 12 others, ran an organized scheme to steal catalytic converters up and down the West Coast.
On July 29, Mr. Doyle, Mr. Hellbusch and their 12 other associates were indicted on charges of racketeering, money laundering and aggravated theft by a grand jury in Washington County, Oregon.
Catalytic converters are a target for theft because they are located in easily accessible parts of a vehicle and because they contain precious metals, including platinum, palladium and rhodium, all of which are used to make vehicle exhaust less toxic.
The trafficking ring capitalized on the rise in price of these precious metals. Rhodium’s price has ballooned from around $2,500 per ounce in 2019 to a staggering $14,000 per ounce as of Thursday.
An intact catalytic converter typically sells for $150 to $300 on the black market, but the metals, once removed at a refinery, go for around $800, according to the Oregonian.
Last year, Oregon’s lawmakers passed a bill aimed at preventing catalytic converter theft from being profitable.
Under Senate Bill 803, scrap metal dealers are banned from buying converters from anyone but commercial sellers. In addition, scrap dealers must keep track of the license and vehicle identification numbers of the cars associated with the converters.
Prevention on the victim’s end, however, is more difficult.
“The people that are removing them from vehicles are so adept at doing so, that it’s almost like a pit crew at a NASCAR race,” Mr. Henderson told Oregon Public Broadcasting.
Mr. Henderson recommended discretion in where you park.
“See if you can park in a well-lit area, or an area that has video surveillance, so that there’s something that authorities can do — there’s something to follow up on — should this happen to you,” Mr. Henderson explained to OPB.
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