SIMI VALLEY : 2 Arrested on Drug Charges, Cash Seized
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Ventura County sheriff’s detectives Friday seized $360,000 from a Woodland Hills bank where a Simi Valley man had stashed it before he was arrested on suspicion of selling drugs, authorities said.
James Mark Hopkins, 35, and David Scott Hall, 33, both of Simi Valley, were arrested on drug-dealing charges Tuesday night after they tried to swap a kilogram of cocaine for 10 pounds of marijuana proffered by undercover agents, Sgt. Gary Pentis said.
Deputies then searched Hopkins and his Ford F-250 truck and found a bank account number and two safe-deposit box keys, he said.
Detectives traced the keys to a Sanwa Bank branch in the San Fernando Valley. After obtaining a search warrant, they retrieved two shopping bags full of cash from deposit boxes there, Pentis said.
Hopkins is free on $20,000 bail, while Hall is being held at the Ventura County Jail in lieu of $100,000 bail. They were arraigned Thursday on charges of possession of cocaine for sale and sale of cocaine.
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