Popular YouTuber Cody Detwiler, known as WhistlinDiesel to his 9.6 million subscribers, was arrested January 22 at a Tennessee airport after returning from international travel. The second arrest in three months. Same case. Different warrant. Escalating pressure.
Over 25 law enforcement officers and agents detained him upon arrival, according to his Instagram post. He spent 50 minutes in custody before posting $25,000 bond. The Rutherford County Sheriff's Office confirmed indictments for tax evasion and filing false sales tax returns, per reporting by Carscoops and Autoblog.
The charges stem from approximately $30,000 in unpaid Tennessee sales tax on a 2020 Ferrari F8 Tributo. That Ferrari no longer exists. Detwiler famously destroyed it in a fire during a video shoot in Texas. The second vehicle referenced in the expanding indictment was also destroyed in a separate incident across state lines.
Both cars were titled and registered in Montana under LLCs. Montana has no sales tax on vehicles, no emissions testing, no safety inspections, and offers permanent registration for vehicles over 11 years old. Form an LLC in Montana for roughly $1,000, register the car through that entity, and you've dodged tens of thousands in sales tax that would be owed in states like California, Tennessee, or Utah.
The loophole is perfectly legal in Montana. It's increasingly illegal everywhere else.
According to Road & Track, Detwiler claims he never received advance notice about the tax bill. No letter. No phone call. Just a three-year investigation that culminated in his first arrest at his home in November 2025, followed by the airport detention two months later.
"Insists He's Being Targeted to Make an Example," reads the headline from Taste of Country. Detwiler has said exactly that in social media posts. Whether it's true hardly matters. Tennessee needed a high-profile case. It found one with a massive online audience and a documented history of buying expensive cars, destroying them on camera, and registering them out of state.
States across the country are tired of losing tax revenue to Montana LLCs. California's DMV uses license plate readers to track Montana-plated supercars operating in the state, then cross-references insurance and toll records to identify residents dodging registration requirements. Utah passed legislation in March 2025 creating a data-sharing arrangement to locate tens of thousands of tax evaders, targeting $100 million in back taxes and penalties, according to Car and Driver.
Georgia compiled lists of vehicles with Montana plates but Georgia toll tags, built profiles of where the cars traveled, then went after owners with back taxes and penalties. Indiana and Missouri are advancing similar crackdown legislation. Wyoming created a legal presumption that if a car is registered to an out-of-state LLC, the owner owes registration and sales tax unless proven otherwise, per Bloomberg Law via TaxProf Blog.
The practice has become industrial scale. As of 2023, Montana had 2.3 million registered vehicles despite having only 879,000 licensed drivers, according to Jalopnik. California dealers alone sold $2 billion worth of vehicles to Montana LLCs between 2022 and 2025. Companies like Dirt Legal openly advertise Montana LLC formation services, claiming to have processed nearly 47,000 customers across all 50 states.
Businesses in Montana operate vehicle storage facilities specifically designed to meet the 12-month out-of-state storage requirements some states impose. Park your million-dollar hypercar in a Montana warehouse for a year, age it into legal compliance, then ship it home. The entire ecosystem exists to service tax avoidance.
Most states require vehicles to be registered where they're primarily used or garaged. Exceed 60 to 90 days in a state, and you're supposed to register there regardless of where you bought it. The Montana loophole ignores those laws entirely by creating shell LLCs with Montana addresses and no genuine business purpose beyond vehicle registration.
For international readers confused by the aggressive prosecution, understand that U.S. state tax systems differ dramatically from most countries. In many nations, you buy a car, pay tax at purchase, register it once, and drive. Done. In the United States, each state sets its own sales tax rates, registration fees, emissions standards, and inspection requirements. Moving between states or exploiting registration differences creates legal exposure that doesn't exist in unified national systems.
Tennessee's sales tax on vehicles is 7 percent. On a $400,000 Ferrari, that's $28,000. Detwiler saved that money by registering in Montana. Tennessee wants it back, with penalties and interest. The state also wants every other resident considering the Montana loophole to see what happens when you get caught.
Detwiler plans to fight the charges. His next court date was scheduled for early 2026, though he expects litigation to drag on for years. He's already battled a gag order from prosecutors, later softened by the judge to allow posting public information. He's named the lead investigator publicly. The entire case is playing out across social media to millions of viewers.
That's precisely what Tennessee wants. Maximum visibility. Maximum deterrence. Make the example so public that everyone thinks twice before forming a Montana LLC for their next supercar purchase.
Whether Detwiler is guilty of intentional tax evasion or caught in regulatory ambiguity won't be decided until trial. What's already clear is that states have decided the Montana loophole ends now, and they're willing to deploy airport arrests with 25 officers to make sure the message gets through.
The era of consequence-free out-of-state registration is over. Detwiler is the warning shot. Everyone else registering Montana plates while living elsewhere should expect to be next.