Six defendants were sentenced on Monday, December 16 for their roles in a multi-million-dollar organized criminal enterprise that specialized in the theft of catalytic converters throughout the Delaware Valley region from 2022-2023, the Bucks County District Attorney said.
The defendants included Michael Williams, who owned and operated TDI Towing at 2335 Wheatsheaf Lane in Philadelphia, his three sons-in-law, Michael Bruce, Kevin Schwartz, and Patrick Hopkins, his wife Deborah Davalos, and her sister Lisa Davalos.
In June 2023, authorities concluded a yearlong investigation with charges against 10 adults and one juvenile. Officials estimated that as many as 2,000 valuable car parts were stolen in our region via the operations of “kingpin” Williams and his associates. On June 27, 2023, Williams, Bruce, Schwartz, Hopkins and Deborah Davalos pleaded guilty.
Williams, 53, of Huntingdon Valley, was sentenced to 2.5 to 5 years in state prison, followed by a consecutive term of two years of probation. He was also ordered to pay $124,900 to 157 victims.
Schwartz, 34, and Hopkins, 25, both of Huntingdon Valley, were sentenced to nine months to 23 months at the county jail and Davalos, 49, of Philadelphia, entered a no contest plea and was sentenced to 90 days to 23 months in the county jail.
Deborah Davalos, 52, of Huntingdon Valley (no photo provided), was sentenced to two years of probation.
Detectives with the Bucks County District Attorney’s Office led three dozen local, state, and federal law enforcement agencies in Bucks County, Montgomery County, Delaware County, Philadelphia, and New Jersey in the investigation.
Officials found that TDI Towing had been in the business of buying catalytic converters for at least three years, during which time they bought an average of 175 catalytic converters a week, or 27,300 in total. TDI employees paid an average of $300 per catalytic converter for a total of nearly $8.2 million during the three years, the DA said.
“At the time the arrests were announced, the theft of catalytic converters had skyrocketed in Bucks County and surrounding counties because of the money they can fetch at scrap yards,” the DA said. “Since these arrests, thefts of catalytic converters have drastically dropped with only four reported thefts in Bensalem Township as of this year.”
The case was investigated by Bucks County Detectives Richard Munger and Timothy Johnson, with assistance from the Bucks County Detectives Drug Strike Force, the Montgomery County District Attorney’s Office and their Detective Bureau, the Attorney General’s Office, Delaware County Detectives, the Philadelphia Police Department, Pennsylvania State Police, Middletown Township Police Department, Bensalem Township Police Department, Lower Southampton Township Police Department, Warminster Township Police Department, Newtown Township Police Department, Abington Township Police Department, Plymouth Township Police Department, Upper Merion Township Police Department, East Norriton Township Police Department, Lower Gwynedd Police Department, Upper Gwynedd Police Department, Upper Dublin Police Department, Whitpain Township Police Department, FBI Field Offices in Philadelphia, Newark and New Jersey, and the U.S. Marshals Fugitive Task Force.
“Analysts from the Bucks County Detectives, Montgomery County Detectives, Mid-Atlantic Great Lake Organized Crime Law Enforcement Network (MAGLOCLEN), the Delaware Valley Intelligence Center (DVIC), the Pennsylvania Crime Information Center (PACIC) and the National Insurance Crime Bureau (NICB), were valuable to this investigation, and the Bucks County 20th Investigating Grand Jury was instrumental in getting these individuals charged,” the DA said.
Photos: Bucks County District Attorney