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Posted on 05/12/2025 6:33:21 AM PDT by Phoenix8
(Gray News) - A man was sentenced for his role in transporting thousands of stolen catalytic converters across state lines, laundering money and other related crimes.
Tou Sue Vang, 33, was sentenced to 12 years in prison, according to Acting U.S. Attorney Michele Bechwith.
According to court documents, Tou Sue Vang, along with his brother Andrew Vang and mother Monica Moua, purchased stolen catalytic converters from thieves in California and sold them to a buyer in New Jersey for more than $38 million. The buyer then sold the converters and the precious metals to a metal refinery for more than $600 million, according to the indictment.
According to the United States Attorney’s Office, thieves steal catalytic converters because they contain precious metals and then sell them to buyers. The black-market price for certain catalytic converters from California can be more than $1,000 each.
(Excerpt) Read more at kold.com ...
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A 12 years sentence seems heavy until you realize it was a federal crime that crossed state lines and EACH count can be punished by 1-7 years jail time. Guy lived like a King for years with 2 houses, yacht, cars…mostly from helping steal from poor , and working class people etc.
I’d say he got off light as a feather…then again it is “Kalifornia” we are talking about.
He should be executed
The buyer and their co-conspirator at the refinery should be in the cell with him.
I put VIN on my cat with a dremel tool. Of course if I catch them in the act the fire department will need a squeegee to clean up the mess…
As many lives as he affected I’d have zero problem with a life sentence. Let’s say, three months per catalytic converter. I mean, each and every one severely impacted an owner and their family. That adds up.
Another pre-human who just couldn’t assimilate to living in a civilized America.
They don’t say how many, but I would estimate 1 to 2 million catalytic converter...meaning at least 1000 people involved.
The BIG QUESTION for me is why did it take so long to get to the top of the theft ring? Do they have Mafia-level Omerta, or something?
In any case, this is the kind of organized crime you get when the Justice Department is spending all their time hunting for phantom ‘White Supremacists” or prosecuting people at school boards for speaking out against Tranny policies.
Actually that’s something I wondered about also.
Did the factory never once wonder why large shipments of (possibly) like new cats were arriving from California?
Too often these business owners escape responsibility…reminds me of something else illegal (illegal aliens working for companies).
Tou in Hmong means Boy, so... Boy named Sue Vang.
It would actually could be the most humane thing to do.
The shock of few carefully selected public hangings would very likely reduce certain crimes by 95%, thus having an extremely net positive effect.
YES
Wouldn’t break my heart if there were CC security systems that automatically (and quickly) deflated all four tires when a theft was detected.
They used to shoot horse thieves over a century ago.
Well well well, a boy named Sue, lets see how tough he is in prison😁
I deal with a trucking company out of Idaho. Their main business is scrap though. They own junk yards in Idaho.
They have various scrap business. Steel, copper, aluminum, etc. They also have dozens of semis and maxi flatbeds I contract for hauling lumber.
A couple years ago during a visit they showed me the warehouse where they recycle catalytic converters. They cut them apart remove the rare earth elements and separate the materials. The machine also vacuums up all the dust. A 55 gallon drum/barrel I was told was worth $12,000.
They would buy CC from all over the country. They had a website where they would send you a packing slip and you could UPS/FedEx the CC to them and then they would pay you.
Then he said the FBI got involved in tracking these CC around the country. Apparently, they were a pretty big buyer of volume. They stopped buying them unless you provided the VIN# to go along with it. They were afraid that they would be raided by the FBI and all their inventory would get seized.
FYI, he told me that the most valuable CC came from a Ford Expedition. It has two and they were worth $650 each scrap value. He also said that it took about two minutes to cut them out with a battery operated sawsall.
They also have a machine that removed the casing off of Romex wire and chopped the copper up into little pieces and blew that copper into a bin. The bins were 4000 pounds each.
They put 64M# on a flatbed going to a smelter in OR. Copper is worth between $3.50-4/pound. Do the math of what one truckload is worth. There is a lot of money in scrap.
38 million over 12 years is a pretty good rate.! How can an old guy like me get in this for a year or two....without the jail time of course.
Seems very very light to me. This sort of thing puts out thousands and thousands of people who get charged far more than the black market salvage value of a stolen cc. We used to shoot horse thieves. Should be about the same for something like this.
2 nights ago the dog woke me up about 1:30 going in and out the doggy door. I went outside to see since I heard something. Heard a sawzall going and figured someone behind us was losing their catalytic converter.
Yep, this country needs to bring back public hangings if only to encourage others.
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