Two St. Lucie County men charged with illegally selling 'cloned' vehicles in Florida

ST.. LUCIE COUNTY, Fla. - Law enforcers throughout the state recovered 30 vehicles last year valued at more than $750,000 as part of a probe that began with a St. Lucie County Sheriff’s Office investigation into “cloned” vehicles — stolen vehicles registered using fraudulent vehicle identification numbers and bogus title documents, according to records released Friday.

Arrested Thursday, Luis Omar Ramirez, 33, of Port St. Lucie, was connected to at least seven of the cloned vehicles, which were valued at nearly $150,000, according to an arrest affidavit. Ramirez faces a host of charges, including organized fraud and filing false statement of ownership for purpose of vehicle title.

Sheriff’s investigators were aware of Ramirez as early as November 2008 when he tried to register a 2007 Ford F350 pickup in Fort Pierce that later was determined to have a counterfeit vehicle identification numbers plate and federal certification label, officials said. Ramirez presented a North Carolina title with David Perez as the seller.

Ramirez said a man named “Dave” came into his Price Choice Food Market store in Fort Pierce and he bought it from “Dave” for $15,000 — about half the vehicle’s value. Investigators found the truck had been reported stolen out of New York the month before and it was a 2006 model. Ramirez denied knowing about the fake title and altered VIN, and sheriff’s officials confiscated the truck.

In March 2009, National Insurance Crime Bureau and Florida Highway Patrol officials investigating a lead on a possible “cloned” vehicle found a Ford truck at a Fort Pierce home. The owner said he saw it for sale at Price Choice Food Market, but that a man in the store — later identified as Ramirez — said it already had been sold. The owner said he bought the truck weeks later from another person after seeing it for sale elsewhere.

The vehicle had been reported stolen in October 2008 out of New York. It was registered about a week later in Florida and a North Carolina title was submitted.

Investigators also identified a Ford truck with similar registration aspects. Salvador Leon, 31, of Fort Pierce registered that vehicle with documents showing he bought it from a man in North Carolina with the same address as one on a document that Ramirez presented earlier. Also arrested Thursday, Leon faces a single filing false statement of ownership for purpose of vehicle title charge.

Meanwhile, local investigators learned New York City police were investigating the theft and “re-VIN” of stolen vehicles that were being sold in Florida. The vehicles were being registered using bogus New York or North Carolina titles. At least two of the locally-recovered vehicles were among those.

Investigators sifted through more than 80,000 records from the state Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles of vehicles registered within Florida between January 2008 and April 2009 using North Carolina or New York titles. Through that and other work, investigators identified 48 “clone” vehicles, and law enforcement officials from agencies from Monroe to Duval counties worked to contact the registrants.

As of August 2009, 30 “cloned” vehicles were recovered.

Records also link another man to Ramirez’s alleged scheme, but he apparently hasn’t been arrested.