“For Sale” Leads “To Jail”

Oxnard – Oxnard residents Joaquin Samano, 41, and Ernesto Macias, 42, are entrepreneurial…to a fault.  Both men were the object of a two-month investigation into their activities involving illegal sales of automobiles conducted through the practice of “curbstoning”.

Ernesto Macias

According to Oxnard Police Department spokesman Senior Officer Jeff McGreevy’s report to the media, law enforcement has been repeatedly contacted by area retailers and residents with reports of multiple vehicles parked on city streets identified as being for sale.  The reports became increasingly frequent as “area merchants noticed the same people moving cars around,” McGreevy noted, adding “this activity was an indication that a vehicle dealer may be posing as a private party” in an effort to evade registration fees and sales taxes.

In early March 2013, Oxnard Police Department detectives, working in collaboration with DMV investigators in an undercover capacity, determined that Samano and Macias were selling multiple vehicles on public thoroughfares throughout Oxnard.  Samano himself had three cars posted for sale, while Macias had more than a dozen spread throughout the downtown area, making public parking a challenge for shoppers and residents.

Samano

Suspected of operating an ongoing unlicensed commercial vehicle sales operation, in direct violation of Vehicle Code regulations requiring proper licensing, bonding, and transfer documentation that includes the remittance of fees and taxes to the state,

Samano and Macias were taken into custody and booked into Ventura County Jail on  multiple Vehicle Code violations and tax fraud.

Photos: Courtesy Ventura County Jail Booking

Read more:

VCStar: Two Men Arrested in Oxnard on Suspicion of Illegally Selling Cars

KCLU: Two Men Arrested on Charges of Acting as Unauthorized Auto Dealers

Oxnard PD Press: Illegal Vehicle Sales