A theft ring that allegedly made millions from catalytic converters has been bustedThe Justice Department has arrested 21 people suspected of belonging to a theft ring that made millions of dollars from stolen catalytic converters, the car parts that have increasingly become targets across the country.The defendants have been charged in two different indictments in separate courts — the Eastern District of California and the Northern District of Oklahoma.Fifteen of the defendants are accused of buying catalytic converters from local thieves and shipping them to DG Auto in New Jersey.The National Insurance Crime Bureau has been tracking the surge in catalytic converter thefts, and says there's been about a ten-fold increase in thefts since 2018, with more than 14,000 reported being swiped in 2020.The prices of the metals have gone up since the COVID-19 pandemic, which has affected their production in places like Russia and South Africa."