2 Suspects Arrested in Bank Holdup Spree : Crime: Authorities link the Thousand Oaks residents to 16 robberies in Ventura and Los Angeles counties.

Authorities have arrested two Thousand Oaks men suspected of robbing 16 banks during a 3 1/2-month spree that stretched from Simi Valley to El Monte.

FBI agents arrested Marc Miller, 23, at a Thousand Oaks residence without incident Monday, one day after Los Angeles police kicked in a door at a Super 8 Motel in Woodland Hills after a six-hour stakeout and arrested Arthur Lara, 33, authorities said.

U.S. magistrates on Tuesday ordered Lara and Miller held without bail, pending a review of the case by a federal grand jury.

The pair are suspected in a series of holdups that began April 23 at a Citibank branch in Sherman Oaks and ended Aug. 4 at a Bank of America branch in Newhall, said FBI Agent Gary Auer, regional supervisor in the bureau’s Ventura office.

Auer said the men’s targets included three Bank of America branches in Ventura County--in Westlake Village on June 21, Simi Valley on July 3 and Thousand Oaks on July 7. They also allegedly robbed two banks in the Santa Clarita Valley and 11 more throughout Los Angeles County, Auer said.

Authorities believe that the two returned to the Citibank branch and robbed it a second time July 23, Auer said.

Auer declined to say how much money was taken in the robberies until after the men are indicted.

“The number of robberies in which these individuals are suspects is substantially higher than is the case for most bank robbers,” Auer said Tuesday. “While these individuals may be responsible for a large number of bank robberies, it’s indicative of what happens to bank robbers--they get arrested.”

Although the bulk of the robberies occurred in the San Fernando Valley, there was no discernible pattern to the crimes, Auer said.

Detective Tom Gattegno of the Los Angeles Police Department robbery and homicide division said Miller drove the getaway car while Lara was “a note passer” who handed bank tellers notes claiming he had a weapon and demanding money.

“He was supporting his narcotics habit with the robberies,” Gattegno said of Lara.

Auer said authorities used descriptions of the bank robbers and photos taken by bank surveillance cameras to link them to the 16 crimes.

FBI agents will continue their investigation to determine if Miller and Lara had roles in any other unsolved bank robberies in Southern California, Auer said, adding, “there’s hundreds of interviews to be done now.”

On Tuesday, U.S. Magistrate Willard W. McEwen Jr. in Santa Barbara ordered Miller held without bail pending a federal grand jury review of potential robbery charges, a clerk at his office said.

Magistrate R.J. Groh of Los Angeles ordered Lara held without bail Tuesday pending the review, said Carol Levitsky, a spokeswoman for the U.S. attorney’s office in Los Angeles.

Miller was to be held in Ventura County Jail to await transfer to the Metropolitan Detention Center in Los Angeles, where Lara is already being held, officials said. A post-indictment hearing is scheduled for Aug. 30.

If convicted, each man faces up to 20 years in federal prison and a $5,000 fine for each of the robberies.

Times staff writer Chip Johnson contributed to this story.