Huntington Home Searched In $7M LI Catalytic Converter Bust: Police

HUNTINGTON, NY — A Huntington man's home was searched as part of a $7 million Long Island catalytic converter bust during which thousands of the car parts were seized by the Nassau County police on Wednesday, officials said.

Nassau police and federal officers searched the Huntington home of Mazhar Abdullah, who runs a Hicksville business named Max Auto Recycling, Huntington Now reported.

A screen grab of the Max Auto Recycling Facebook page obtained by Huntington Now shows the business wrote, "We buy used catalytic converter. # top dollar paid," as well as "collect the most profit from you [sic] catalytic converter Dust." The page was taken down.

Multiple Huntington residents issued complaints that their catalytic converters were stolen overnight from vehicles parked on streets and driveways, Huntington Now reported.

Catalytic converters were reported stolen and arrests made all over Long Island based on police news releases.

"Operation Cat Track" was a year-long investigation that resulted in the discovery of thousands of stolen catalytic converters, Nassau Police Commissioner Patrick Ryder said. The items were taken from a van and more than $4 million in cash was found on a table after police executed a search warrant in Long Beach on Wednesday, officials said.

The homes of two Long Beach brothers, Andrew Pawelsky, 24, and Alan Pawelsky, 20, were searched before dawn on Wednesday, Ryder said. Police also executed search warrants at the two Island Park scrap yard businesses run by the brothers, Ryder said.

Ryder said neither brother nor Abdullah have been charged in connection with the theft of the catalytic converters, according to Newsday. Police did not say how the search of Abdullah's home is connected to the Long Beach brothers' homes.

The Long Beach brothers are accused of buying thousands of catalytic converters from thieves and then shipping the metals to Montana, authorities said, CBS News reported.

Police partnered with Homeland Security and the Postal Service on the bust.

Catalytic converters are valued car parts for thieves, made of metals that include rhodium, which is worth up at least $12,000 an ounce.

Ryder explained that the decanter crushes the rhodium, as well as palladium and platinum, into dust, which is where the money is, CBS reported.

"Every [scrap] yard that has turned a blind eye and taken these in, you better open up both those of eyes because the next knock on the door is going to be the Nassau County Police Department," Ryder said.

The commissioner said police also seized three vehicles, financial records, cellphones, video systems and thousands more catalytic converters during the search.

"This last year in the tri-state area, the theft of catalytic converters has gone up over 300 percent," Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman said at a news conference.

A tip to the Homeland Security office in St. Paul, Minnesota led investigators to zero-in on Nassau County.