Ventura men receive prison time for extorting taco truck and robbing woman at gunpoint
Two Ventura men were sentenced to prison time this week in connection with a string of robberies, targeting a taco truck, smoke shop, grocery store and a woman who was held at gunpoint.
Oscar Aguirre Silva, 31, and Edward Donaldo Ramirez Martinez, 28, were convicted of federal charges for the crimes committed between November and December of last year, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Central District of California.
On Nov. 6, 2023, Silva violently extorted a taco truck vendor in the city of Oxnard.
"The victims in this case were people just trying to make a living by 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 targeting the taco truck, Silva robbed a woman at gunpoint while Martinez acted as the getaway driver. Silva stole the woman's iPhone along with her purse, which had her debit card and the debit card of someone else inside. Afterwards, the two men went to a Walmart store in Ventura where they used the stolen cards to spend $524 shopping.
Silva then joined a third accomplice — 30-year-old David Ray Reyes of Ventura — in using the stolen cards to try buying items at a smoke shop in Oxnard.
Later that month, on Nov. 25 and 26, Silva robbed an Oxnard smoke shop and a grocery store also located in the city.
The last crime among the men was Martinez's illegal possession of ammunition as a felon. He was convicted of a felony charge of carrying a loaded firearm in February 2020.
On Dec. 2, prosecutors said, he possessed a "ghost gun," which has no serial number and therefore cannot be tracked by authorities, that was carrying four rounds of ammunition.
After pleading guilty on April 25, Martinez was sentenced to 4½ years in federal prison and ordered to pay $1,597 in restitution for charges of aggravated identity theft and being a felon in possession of ammunition.
In Silva's case, a judge sentenced him to six years in federal prison and he was ordered to pay $2,941 in restitution.
He was convicted of charges including one count of interference with commerce by extortion (Hobbs Act), two counts of interference with commerce by robbery (Hobbs Act), three counts of bank fraud, two counts of attempted bank fraud and two counts of aggravated identity theft. He also pleaded guilty on April 25.
As for Reyes, he was sentenced to 26 months in federal prison after pleading guilty in March to one count of attempted bank fraud, one count of bank fraud and two counts of aggravated identity theft.