These stolen catalytic converters are purchased by shady scrap dealers, then the converters end up being shipped overseas to the Chinese, who extract the palladium. If the FBI wasn’t so busy persecuting parents attending school meetings or labeling MAGA a terrorist organization, they might actually do something like try and nail down these illicit export companies.
Bullcrap.
Stolen catalytic converters are sold on black markets in Colorado, California, and other States that don’t allow after market catalytic converters.
They are worth more than the metal content, as they can be sold to theft victims desperate to get their car to pass smog checks and back on the road.