Sagunto: man arrested in Paterna over the theft of four catalytic converters
The National Police have arrested a 33-year-old man in Paterna as the alleged thief of four catalytic converters taken from several car parks in Sagunto.
The National Police have arrested a 33-year-old man in Paterna (a town in Valencia province) and link him to the theft of four catalytic converters. The parts disappeared from vehicles parked in several car parks in Sagunto, according to the police information that elperiodic.com published on 2 October 2026. The arrest follows an investigation by the officers, and for now the suspect is only the alleged perpetrator.
It helps to keep two things apart: an arrest is not a conviction. A court will weigh the evidence and decide whether the man is responsible for the four thefts.
To understand why these parts are such a common target, look inside the exhaust system. As elperiodic.com reported in February 2026, covering an operation by the Guardia Civil (Spanish gendarmerie) in Castellón province, catalytic converters contain precious metals such as rhodium, palladium and platinum, which are in high demand in industrial recycling. In that case, known as Operation Catalepsis, one of the two men arrested lifted the car with a hydraulic jack and cut out the converter with metal-cutting tools while the other kept watch. The Guardia Civil cleared up eight thefts in six municipalities. It is another area and another investigation, but it shows how groups that do this work operate.
The legal classification also matters, and it depends on specific figures. Article 234 of the Spanish Criminal Code covers theft: if the value of what was taken is above 400 euros, the penalty is prison for six to eighteen months. If it does not exceed that amount, the penalty is a fine of one to three months, unless one of the aggravating circumstances in article 235 applies. There is also an exception for repeat offenders: anyone who already has three final convictions for offences of the same kind, at least one of them minor, faces a prison sentence even if the value is below 400 euros.
When a theft is especially serious because of the value of what was taken, or causes harm of special consideration, article 235 raises the penalty to prison of one to three years. That the law provides for this option does not mean it applies here: the case is at the arrest stage. Also, paragraph 2 of article 234 was amended by Organic Law 1/2026 of 8 April, so the current text is only a few months old.
Which bracket would apply to the arrested man will depend, among other factors, on the value of the four parts and on his record, something the court has to determine.
According to elperiodic.com, with data from the Criminal Code (BOE) and from elperiodic.com on the Castellón case.