Photo: Stock Image
In a case that opened on March 29, 2024 when Ventura County Sheriff’s Department deputies were called to the scene of reported vandalism in the City of Camarillo, a local area graffiti artists were immediately suspected. According to VCSD spokesman Sr. Deputy Steve Krupnik, “a tagging crew is a group of people who work together to vandalize property with graffiti for recognition, notoriety, or thrill.”
Whatever the motivation, such activity is seriously destructive and seriously illegal, which prompted a full-scale investigation into the source of the artwork. Nearly three months later, the coordinated efforts of the VCSD Camarillo Special Enforcement Unit, the Directed Enforcement Unit, and Camarillo Patrol Services, assessing “numerous additional vandalisms involving the same suspect” led the cops to the doorstep of 18- year-old Camarillo resident Miguel Angel Lopez.
A search warrant was served by a phalanx of cops from the Special Enforcement Unit on the Lopez residence at the crack of dawn on June 6, 2024, whereupon Lopez was contacted and detained. While detectives were chatting with Lopez, the simultaneous search of the home and his vehicle turned up “additional evidence further implicating Lopez” in similar crimes which “cost the city thousands of dollars to repair and are a burden upon taxpayers.
Lopez was taken into custody and transported to Ventura County Jail, where he was booked on multiple charges of felony vandalism.
