Over the past three months, investigators from the Utah State Tax Commission's Division of Motor Vehicle Enforcement have been trying to nail two men who were selling cars without a license.

There was nothing special about the cars, other than the fact the men were selling them unlawfully. It's a class A misdemeanor to do so, said Kip Ingersoll, the division's assistant director.

But when investigators served a search warrant to one of the men, they found 11 guns and a pound of marijuana.

One bust later and the motor vehicle enforcement officers had seized another 12 1/2 pounds of pot — packaged in one-gallon freezer bags.

The street value of the marijuana is estimated to be between $6,500 and $19,500, Ingersoll said.

The guns, mostly rifles, were placed on a table with the confiscated drugs in what became a herbally scented room during a press conference at the Utah State Tax Commission's offices Tuesday afternoon.

"This all started with people selling cars without a license," Ingersoll said.

The two men — officers are calling them both John Doe because they haven't verified one man's identity yet — had used a newspaper's classified advertisements to sell the cars.

Ingersoll said state law allows an unlicensed person to sell no more than two cars a year. The men officers arrested have sold at least seven vehicles this year, he said.

One of the search warrants was served in Murray and led to the serving of another in South Salt Lake. In South Salt Lake, officers found parts left over from a BMW that had been stolen and almost completely stripped of its parts.

One of the arrested men is a restricted person and isn't permitted to have firearms in his possession. He may be facing firearms charges.

"We get uncomfortable when we find firearms with narcotics distribution," Ingersoll said.

The division investigates auto theft and other vehicle-related crimes, as well as fraud related to motor vehicle commerce.

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E-mail: jdougherty@desnews.com