OXNARD : 2 Bank Robbery Suspects Arrested

Two more banks were targeted by robbers in Oxnard, but customers chased and captured one suspect and another was arrested a short time later by undercover police, authorities said Wednesday.

The arrests capped a three-month period during which 50 banks have been robbed, 25 of them since the start of the year, FBI Special Agent Gary Auer said.

But a spate of recent arrests has put a dent in the number of unsolved robberies during the period, Auer said.

“It sounds like we’re slowly but surely catching them right now,” Oxnard Police Lt. Jeff Young said.

On Tuesday afternoon, Ramon M. Martinez, 53, of Oxnard was arrested in the downtown Plaza Park on suspicion of robbing the nearby Security Pacific Bank branch. Auer said Martinez is not a suspect in any other bank robbery.

Customers at the bank chased the robber to the park after he received money from a teller and fled on foot, Auer said.

An undisclosed sum of money was recovered, he said.

On Wednesday morning, several blocks away, a man walked into a branch of Channel Islands National Bank at 2nd and A streets and presented a demand note to a teller.

Oxnard Police Sgt. Bob Elder said the man apparently became frightened and fled after the teller told the suspect that she did not have a key to the cash drawer, and another teller acted puzzled when asked how much money she had.

An hour after the 10 a.m. attempted robbery, Oxnard Officer Jim Adcock saw a man who resembled the person who attempted to rob the bank near the Transportation Center on Oxnard Boulevard and apprehended him.

Taken into custody was Alvaro Martinez, 25, of Oxnard, no relation to the other suspect. A second man with him, Miguel Lopez, 26, of Oxnard was arrested on suspicion of being under the influence of narcotics, police said.

After his arrest, the FBI learned that a federal warrant had been issued for Alvaro Martinez after a bank robbery on Friday, Auer said. “We believe he is responsible for numerous other bank robberies in Ventura County,” Auer said.

His arrest followed two others in recent weeks that accounted for 18 area bank robberies since October, Auer said.

David Menendez of Oxnard was arrested on Friday and has been charged in connection with eight bank robberies from Dec. 17 to Feb. 10, Auer said.

A transient, Thomas Oretta, was also arrested and charged with 10 counts of bank robbery for crimes between October and January, Auer said.