PORTLAND — Police in a suburb of Portland announced on Thursday that they had detained the head of a criminal organisation that has been trafficking more than 44,000 catalytic converters that have been taken from cars on the West Coast since 2021.
Brennan Doyle, 32, was the operation’s commander, according to detectives, who raided his Lake Oswego home and seven other homes last week. According to Oregon Public Broadcasting, the detectives recovered over 3,000 catalytic converters, hundreds of thousands of dollars in cash, a luxury automobile, and jewellery.
According to Beaverton police spokeswoman Matt Henderson, Doyle and his friends are accused of stealing catalytic converters from cars along the West Coast. According to him, the crime ring was centred in Portland but covered several counties in Oregon, Washington, Nevada, California, Texas, and New York in addition to other states.
A single ounce of the metals used in catalytic converters can fetch thousands of dollars. The parts that were stolen and smuggled were thought to have a street value of more than $22 million.
According to Henderson, the criminal organisation sent boxes of converters to the East Coast and other countries. He said that there may have been dozens, if not hundreds, of participants in the operation, but he refrained from going into further detail because the inquiry is still ongoing.
Racketeering, severe theft, and money laundering were among the 72 charges against Doyle. Tanner Hellbusch of Beaverton, one of his associates, allegedly got captured in March with more than 100 catalytic converters. He was charged with 20 offences that were similar. It wasn’t immediately clear if they have attorneys who can speak on the situation.
According to authorities, at least 12 additional individuals are charged in relation to the operation.
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