An off-duty cop saw a pickup truck full of catalytic converters called it in. It turned out there were 120 something in the back of the truck. They pulled the truck over at the wheel was a guy named Tyler Curtis. He happened to also have a small amount of drugs in his car and an unlicensed gun, so they charged him with that. That traffic stop was sort of the beginning of tracing this whole network.
Catalytic converters are a vital part of emissions reduction in gas-powered vehicles. But that’s not why they’ve been making headlines. Thieves across the US have been sawing them off cars because they contain precious metals like platinum, palladium and rhodium. Bloomberg Businessweek contributor Evan Ratliff is here to tell the tale of a $500 million catalytic converter theft ring—and how local police departments and federal law enforcement brought it down.
Read more: How Cops Cracked a $500 Million Catalytic Converter Crime Ring
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