Two Ventura men were sentenced to prison this week in connection with a string of robberies that included a taco truck, a smoke shop, a grocery store and a woman who was robbed at gunpoint.
Oscar Aguirre Silva, 31, and Edward Donaldo Ramirez Martinez, 28, were found guilty of federal crimes committed between November and December of last year, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Central District of California.
On November 6, 2023, Silva brutally extorted a taco truck vendor in the city of Oxnard.
“The victims in this case were people who were simply trying to make a living operating a food truck when they were allegedly robbed at gunpoint,” U.S. Attorney Martin Estrada said in a statement from his office.
Four days after the taco truck attack, Silva robbed a woman at gunpoint while Martinez acted as a getaway driver. Silva stole the woman’s iPhone as well as her purse, which contained her debit card and another person’s debit card. The two men then went to a Walmart store in Ventura, where they used the stolen cards to spend $524 on purchases.
Silva then joined a third accomplice, 30-year-old David Ray Reyes of Ventura, and attempted to use the stolen cards to purchase goods at a tobacco shop in Oxnard.
Later that month, on November 25 and 26, Silva robbed a tobacco store in Oxnard and a grocery store also located in the city.
The men’s final crime was Martinez’s illegal possession of ammunition as a felon. He was convicted of carrying a loaded firearm in February 2020.
On December 2, prosecutors said, he was in possession of a “ghost gun” that has no serial number and therefore cannot be traced by authorities and that contained four rounds of ammunition.
After pleading guilty on April 25, Martinez was sentenced to four and a half years in federal prison and ordered to pay $1,597 in restitution on charges of aggravated identity theft and criminal possession of ammunition.
In Silva’s case, a judge sentenced him to six years in federal prison and ordered him to pay $2,941 in restitution.
He was convicted of charges including obstruction of commerce by racketeering (Hobbs Act), two counts of obstruction of commerce by robbery (Hobbs Act), three counts of bank fraud, two counts of attempted bank fraud, and two counts of aggravated identity theft. He pleaded guilty on April 25.
Reyes, in turn, was sentenced to 26 months in federal prison after pleading guilty in March to attempted bank fraud, bank fraud and two counts of aggravated identity theft.
