The Justice Department announced what officials called the first national takedown of a criminal enterprise profiting from the rampant theft of catalytic converters.
since the pandemic began, fueled by a surge in the value of those metals. Thieves made off with 12 times as many catalytic converters in 2021 as they did in 2019, according to the National Insurance Crime Bureau.
In April, a deputy sheriff in Houston was shot and killed when he tried to stop thieves from stealing his converter. Agents raided a $1.7 million home in Holmdel, New Jersey, allegedly owned by one of the accused, Navin “Lovin” Khanna. On his Instagram account, he posted a photo of a necklace with a pendant made to look like a catalytic converter. He could not be reached for comment.
Law enforcement officials said Wednesday that they had seized numerous luxury cars as part of the investigation.
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