2 Arrested in Connection With String of Bank Holdups : Crime: Canyon Country pair may be members of a gang suspected in five Security Pacific robberies.

Two Canyon Country men were being held Tuesday in connection with a string of Southern California bank robberies by a group dubbed the “Hole in the Wall Gang.”

The nickname stems from the group’s habit of entering the banks they robbed through a roof or an opening in a wall. The gang is suspected of robbing five Security Pacific banks in the past 14 months, FBI officials said.

“They always went through some sort of hole in the bank,” FBI spokeswoman Karen Gardner said.

Brent Darrin Zubek, 24, and Roderick Scott Russell, 20, were being held on four counts of suspicion of armed bank robbery stemming from the holdups, which began last year with the Oct. 4 takeover of a Security Pacific Bank in Northridge, FBI spokesman John Hoos said. That robbery was followed by the Dec. 18 heist at a Woodland Hills branch, he said.

The men also are suspected in connection with a Jan. 22, 1992, robbery of a La Canada branch and a March 24 holdup at a La Crescenta branch, Hoos said. The men are also being investigated regarding a May 14 robbery of a branch in Imperial Beach in San Diego County, he said.

Federal authorities linked Zubek and Russell to the robberies through tips from an informant responding to a $50,000 reward that Bank of America established June 23, Hoos said. Security Pacific has been merged with Bank of America.

Both men already were in custody after being arrested with a 16-year-old male Sept. 9 during a traffic stop in Barstow, said Sgt. Lee Gibson of the Barstow Police Department.

The minor was released into the custody of his parents. Zubek and Russell were held on suspicion of possession and transportation of a controlled substance and of possessing loaded firearms in their vehicle, Gibson said.

By Tuesday, Russell had been transferred into federal custody in Los Angeles and Zubek was expected to be transferred within several days, Gardner said.

The robbers would enter banks before they opened, then wait for bank employees to arrive. They would use violence and intimidation to force employees to open bank vaults, Hoos said.

“The robbers physically threatened and verbally abused the bank employees during the robberies,” said Charlie Coleman, a spokesman for Bank of America. “In one case, an employee was physically shoved down onto the ground and she sustained injuries as a result.”

Coleman declined to say how much was taken during the robberies but called it “a substantial amount.” He said the investigation is ongoing.

“We believe that this group consists of three or more members,” Coleman said.