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A family that claimed to run an ‘auto repair shop’ from their suburban single story home have admitted it was a key supplier in a $600 million conspiracy to smuggle stolen catalytic converters.
Brothers Tou Sue Vang, 32, and Andrew Vang, 28, along with their mother, Monica Moua, 58, were paid $38 million for the valuable car parts that opportunist thieves brought to their home in Sacramento, California.
The family shipped them to DG Auto in New Jersey, which made $600 million from extracting the precious platinum, palladium and rhodium inside and selling them to a metal refinery, according to prosecutors.
Thousands of motorists were stranded and left facing repair bills of up to $4,400 each as the family’s suppliers wreaked havoc across California.
‘Some of these precious metals are more valuable per ounce than gold, and their value has been increasing in recent years,’ the U.S. attorney's office said.
‘The black-market price for catalytic converters can be above $1,000 each.’
Thousands more were affected across the country with dozens of other people arrested in a series of raids late last year in Oklahoma, Wyoming, Minnesota, New Jersey, New York, Nevada, North Carolina, and Virginia.
Catalytic converters are part of a vehicle’s exhaust system, and they reduce toxic gas and pollutants from its internal combustion engine.
But they can be stolen in less than a minute and California accounts for 37 percent of catalytic converter theft claims nationwide, with about 1,600 reported stolen each month, federal prosecutors said.
Also charged in the 2022 indictment are co-defendants Navin Khanna, aka Lovin Khanna, 40; Tinu Khanna, aka Gagan Khanna, 36; Daniel Dolan, 45; Chi Mo, aka David Mo, 37; Wright Louis Mosley, 50; and Ishu Lakra, 25, all of New Jersey who operated DG Auto in multiple locations across that state.
‘They knowingly purchased stolen catalytic converters and, through a ‘de-canning’ process, extracted the precious metal powders from the catalytic core,’ the Department of Justice said.
‘DG Auto sold the precious metal powders it processed from California and elsewhere to a metal refinery for over $545 million.’
Thefts of catalytic converters surged by 1,200% nationwide in the two years after 2019 as the price of precious metals soared on international markets.
‘Since Covid started, the theft of cat converters has gone up like crazy,’ garage mechanic Moises Haro told CBS.
A single operator can swiftly detach the device from under a car, but LA resident David Sommers confronted three thieves when he was alerted by a camera which recorded the theft outside his home last year.
'I start screaming at these guys like, "What are you doing?
Are you trying to steal my catalytic converter?"' he said
'They jumped in a truck, and they took off.'
More than 52,000 thefts were recorded in 2021 and the number of thefts is still 21 times higher than in 2019.
But they have fallen in every state so far this year, with the exception of New Jersey, the home state of DG Auto.
The trio from Sacramento are the first to plead guilty in the case, with Tou Sue Vang admitting additional charges of money laundering.
He faces up to 20 years in jail, while his relatives face up to five years each.
They also face fines that could be double the $38 million they made from their crimes.
‘This national network of criminals hurt victims across the country,’ said FBI Director Christopher Wray.
They made hundreds of millions of dollars in the process on the backs of thousands of innocent car owners.
Brothers Tou Sue Vang, 32, and Andrew Vang, 28, along with their mother, Monica Moua, 58, were paid $38 million for the valuable car parts that opportunist thieves brought to their home in Sacramento, California.
The family shipped them to DG Auto in New Jersey, which made $600 million from extracting the precious platinum, palladium and rhodium inside and selling them to a metal refinery, according to prosecutors.
Thousands of motorists were stranded and left facing repair bills of up to $4,400 each as the family’s suppliers wreaked havoc across California.
‘Some of these precious metals are more valuable per ounce than gold, and their value has been increasing in recent years,’ the U.S. attorney's office said.
‘The black-market price for catalytic converters can be above $1,000 each.’
Thousands more were affected across the country with dozens of other people arrested in a series of raids late last year in Oklahoma, Wyoming, Minnesota, New Jersey, New York, Nevada, North Carolina, and Virginia.
Catalytic converters are part of a vehicle’s exhaust system, and they reduce toxic gas and pollutants from its internal combustion engine.
But they can be stolen in less than a minute and California accounts for 37 percent of catalytic converter theft claims nationwide, with about 1,600 reported stolen each month, federal prosecutors said.
Also charged in the 2022 indictment are co-defendants Navin Khanna, aka Lovin Khanna, 40; Tinu Khanna, aka Gagan Khanna, 36; Daniel Dolan, 45; Chi Mo, aka David Mo, 37; Wright Louis Mosley, 50; and Ishu Lakra, 25, all of New Jersey who operated DG Auto in multiple locations across that state.
‘They knowingly purchased stolen catalytic converters and, through a ‘de-canning’ process, extracted the precious metal powders from the catalytic core,’ the Department of Justice said.
‘DG Auto sold the precious metal powders it processed from California and elsewhere to a metal refinery for over $545 million.’
Thefts of catalytic converters surged by 1,200% nationwide in the two years after 2019 as the price of precious metals soared on international markets.
‘Since Covid started, the theft of cat converters has gone up like crazy,’ garage mechanic Moises Haro told CBS.
A single operator can swiftly detach the device from under a car, but LA resident David Sommers confronted three thieves when he was alerted by a camera which recorded the theft outside his home last year.
'I start screaming at these guys like, "What are you doing?
Are you trying to steal my catalytic converter?"' he said
'They jumped in a truck, and they took off.'
More than 52,000 thefts were recorded in 2021 and the number of thefts is still 21 times higher than in 2019.
But they have fallen in every state so far this year, with the exception of New Jersey, the home state of DG Auto.
The trio from Sacramento are the first to plead guilty in the case, with Tou Sue Vang admitting additional charges of money laundering.
He faces up to 20 years in jail, while his relatives face up to five years each.
They also face fines that could be double the $38 million they made from their crimes.
‘This national network of criminals hurt victims across the country,’ said FBI Director Christopher Wray.
They made hundreds of millions of dollars in the process on the backs of thousands of innocent car owners.
