Drug Deal Suspect, 35, Arrested While on Bail

For the second time in a week, Ventura County sheriff’s detectives arrested a Woodland Hills man on suspicion of drug dealing, authorities said Saturday.

James Mark Hopkins, 35, who had been released on a $20,000 bond after he was arrested Tuesday in Thousand Oaks, was taken into custody again Friday in the parking lot of a storage facility in Calabasas, authorities said.

In connection with the arrest, detectives seized $174,000 worth of cocaine and marijuana from the storage facility in the 28000 block of Ventura Boulevard and $360,000 in cash from a Woodland Hills bank, deputies said. They also seized a 1990 Porsche convertible outside Hopkins’ Woodland Hills residence.

Hopkins was first arrested outside a Thousand Oaks restaurant Tuesday night after authorities said he and a Simi Valley man swapped a kilogram of cocaine for 10 pounds of marijuana offered by undercover narcotics detectives.

Detectives took him into custody again at 6 p.m. Friday while conducting a follow-up investigation. They said Hopkins almost ran over a narcotics detective with his car while trying to escape.

Hopkins was being held Saturday in the Ventura County Jail in lieu of $1-million bail.