2 Men Arrested in Bank Robberies : Crime: The West Hills suspects are taken into custody after a holdup Friday. They are accused in eight other cases.

The FBI on Friday arrested two West Hills men shortly after a bank robbery in Woodland Hills, accusing them of being the robbers who carried out a string of nine bank holdups in and around the San Fernando Valley, often wearing masks and camouflage suits.

The crimes include the largest bank holdup in the San Fernando Valley last year, the $430,000 robbery on Sept. 5 of the Wells Fargo branch at 18705 Ventura Blvd. in Tarzana, authorities said.

James Ambrose McGrath, 48, and Gilbert David Michaels, 47, were arrested outside an apartment building at 6300 Owensmouth Ave. about 3:15 p.m., several minutes later on suspicion of robbing the Home Savings of America branch at 21816 Victory Blvd. a few blocks away, said FBI spokesman Jim Nielson.

McGrath and Michaels are suspected of robbing a total of eight other banks, including the Tarzana Wells Fargo and banks in West Hills, Westlake Village, Calabasas, Woodland Hills and Northridge between March 15 and Jan. 17, Nielson said.

The robbers often wore fake mustaches, eyebrows and noses or fanciful masks covering their entire faces and ordered employees and customers to lie on the floor while they cleaned out tellers’ drawers, Nielson said.

McGrath and Michaels had two pistols and a rifle at the time of their arrest, but surrendered without resisting, said Nielson. He would not reveal the amount of cash taken Friday.

The arrests culminate an 11-month joint investigation by the FBI and Los Angeles police, Nielson said.

In the Sept. 5 robbery, four men dressed in masks and military-style jumpsuits took over the Wells Fargo branch in Tarzana, wielding automatic weapons and threatening employees and customers. Nielson would not say if authorities had any leads on the other two robbers.

Los Angeles, dubbed the nation’s bank robbery capital by law enforcement officials, had more than 1,700 bank robberies last year, more than twice as many as other U.S. city, the FBI said.