Pair Arrested Over Selling Vitamins as Cure-Alls

Two Los Angeles men posed as holistic nutritionists named Dr. Javier and Dr. Armando and sold vitamins they claimed would cure all ills to nearly 200 victims in Ventura County, authorities alleged Wednesday.

Javier Gazca, 38, and Armando Morales, 46, were arrested Friday on suspicion of practicing medicine without a license and conspiracy to commit grand theft by fraud, Deputy Dist. Atty. Colleen Toy White said. Charges had not been filed, and an investigation was continuing, she said.

White said Gazca and Morales had been working out of a storefront at 819 S. Oxnard Blvd. since January, sending salespeople door-to-door in Oxnard and Santa Paula.

The sellers preyed on elderly Latinos “to get a person that cannot read or write or speak English,” said Robert Salas, a district attorney’s investigator working on the case.

“In other words, the word ‘vitamin’ might be right in front of the elderly victim, and she can’t read it,” Salas said Wednesday. “She believes these people are doctors because she would never suspect that a person would come up to the house in a fraudulent way.

“These are trusting people,” he said. “If it’s the United States of America and a person says he’s a doctor, he’s a doctor.”

Salas said the sellers would ask the victims to fill out a medical questionnaire. The victims would be told that if they suffered from an illness that met the criteria of the fictitious “Organization Americana Nuturista,” they would be eligible to consult with the organization’s doctors, Salas said.

The seller then would offer a business card proclaiming “Dr. Javier and Dr. Armando” to be doctors of nutrition who could cure any ailment, Salas said. Sometimes, Gazca and Morales would do the selling, he said.

The seller would ask $290 to $350 for a hodgepodge of pills, usually vitamins, herbal complexes and food additives, Salas said.

White said investigators are analyzing the contents of the pills. One seller said the pills would cure an elderly woman’s gallbladder illness, White said.

The district attorney’s office is continuing the investigation, along with the Santa Paula and Oxnard police departments and the California Medical Board, Salas said.

“We’re investigating a laboratory in Los Angeles,” Salas said. “I will be in contact with the Los Angeles city attorney’s office because I suspect that this company has been operating in Los Angeles and Santa Ana before they came here.”

Some Latinos complained about the men’s alleged scheme to the Ventura County Legal Aid Service, which sent a report on the complaints to the district attorney’s office last month, Salas said.

Oxnard police executed a search warrant of the storefront Friday and arrested Gazca and Morales. Morales was released Tuesday, but Gazca remains in custody at the Ventura County Jail. Both men are scheduled to appear Friday in Municipal Court, Salas said.

Investigators are asking anyone with information on the alleged scheme to call the district attorney’s office or Santa Paula Police Detective Henry Aguilar. Spanish is spoken at both offices.