MEDLEY, Fla. – Several companies profited from the platinum, palladium, or rhodium extracted out of auto parts that thieves stole from cars in South Florida, according to detectives.
Investigators believe GMCN Scrap Metals, Inc., a company in South Florida, was making tens of millions of dollars on stolen auto parts sold to Techemet Metal Trading, a company in Texas.
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Records show federal, state, and local investigators tracked how GMCN Scrap Metals, Inc. purchased the stolen parts in Miami-Dade County that ended up at the Techemet refinery in Pasadena.
The coveted auto parts that allegedly prompted Techemet to pay GMCN $23 million in just about one year were catalytic converters, an exhaust emission control device.
Investigators came up with a list of over a dozen suspects involved in the scheme that included Gerardo Hernandez Rosada, the owner of GMCN, and his son Christian Hernandez, who worked at GMCN.
According to an arrest warrant, Hernandez’s money laundering scheme to hide the profits of the scheme allegedly involved a network of shell companies and property in Turks and Caicos.
According to Miami-Dade County Sheriff’s Office detectives, the list of suspects also included William Zayas, the owner of Zayas Metal Warehousing in Hialeah, a provider of GMCN.
According to an arrest warrant, Zayas, 53, also purchased stolen catalytic converters from thieves in South Florida and sold these in bulk to GMCN in Medley.
The suspects also include three GMCN employees, Martin Chavez, Alejandro Perera, and Mario Vaillant, who reported to Hernandez Rosada, 59, of Hialeah, and his son, Hernandez, 31, of Miramar.
Detectives suspected Chavez, 61, of North Miami; Perera, 25, of Miami Gardens; and Vaillant, 40, of Richmond Heights; were all involved in transactions with thieves.
Three of the other suspects lived near the businesses in Hialeah: Adrian Perez, 24, Davislay Gonzalez, 36, and Gabriel Gil, 55.
The others were Jose Ancizar, 35, of West Little River; Pedro Vera, 31, of Gladeview; Jose Colon, 39, who lived in a motel in Miami’s Upper East Side; and Dayron Gomez, 39, who was homeless.
Inmate records show correctional deputies booked Gonzalez on Jan. 31, 2024; Ancizar on March 20, 2024; Hernandez and Vaillant on Aug. 29; Hernandez Rosada and Gil on Aug. 30; Gomez on March 1, and Vera on Wednesday.
On Thursday afternoon, Miami-Dade County inmate records did not show Zayas, Chavez, Perera, Perez, and Colon were in the custody of correctional deputies.
The FBI, The Florida Department of Law Enforcement, the Miami-Dade County Sheriff’s Office, the Medley Police Department, and other local law enforcement agencies in Miami-Dade and Broward counties worked on this case.
Detectives asked anyone with information about this or other cases to call Miami-Dade County Crime Stoppers at 305-471-8477 to remain anonymous.
Local 10 News Assignment Desk Editor Mercedes Cevallos contributed to this report.