A group of men are facing charges after a police investigation in Hollywood uncovered stolen wire and catalytic converters at recycling businesses, authorities said.
The investigation began in January when detectives started looking into catalytic converter thefts, utility light pole thefts, copper thefts and construction site material thefts, Hollywood Police officials said Tuesday.
On Feb. 29th, police conducted inspections of two metal recycling facilities On Plunkett Street.
At one of the facilities, investigators uncovered $37,460 worth of stolen Florida Power & Light copper wiring, along with three catalytic converters.
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About $5,625 worth of stolen FPL wiring was recovered at the second location, police said.
On March 13th, authorities inspected the second shop again and found 83 catalytic converters that didn’t have the proper documentation, police said.
Officials said the owner and managers were arrested on a variety of charges including dealing in stolen property.
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The owner, 51-year-old Boaz Shwarz, was arrested on charges including a secondary metal recylcer failing to keep records, a secondary metal recycler regulated metals violation, dealing in stolen property, grand theft, and purchasing detached catalytic converters without proof of ownership.
Addiel Diaz, 50, and Didiel Diaz, 44, were also arrested for dealing in stolen property, failure to register as a secondary metal recycler, failure to keep required records, violating metal recycler payment methods, and possession of detached catalytic converters without proof of ownership.
Nazmi Guerra, 44, was arrested for failure to keep required records and recycler violation of payment methods.
