Pamela Fayed (Photo courtesy of DMV)

Los Angeles Police Department detectives have arrested two Ventura County men they say were hired by a Moorpark gold merchant to help ambush and kill his estranged wife two years ago, authorities said.

Since the stabbing death of Pamela Fayed, 44, in a Century City parking garage in July 2008, investigators say they have linked her estranged husband and three other men to the slaying.

The husband, James Fayed, who had been under a federal fraud investigation related to the operation of his online gold and bullion trading company, was charged with murder, according to Los Angeles police. He was arrested in September 2008.

The two most recent arrests were of two Ventura County men, Steven Vicente Simmons, 21, and Gabriel Jay Marquez, 45, according to a statement by the Los Angeles Police Department. Both were in Ventura County jail on unrelated charges when detectives arrested them this month, according to police. Further details were not available.

The Fayeds were in the middle of a bitter divorce, and she stood to win a $1 million settlement, according to court records. Pamela Fayed, a Camarillo resident, also reportedly had offered to help in the federal investigation.

Also arrested early in the investigation was 50-year-old Jose Luis Moya, one of Fayed's employees. Investigators believe James Fayed paid Moya $25,000 to kill his wife.

James Fayed is due back in court in late July, according to Superior Court records.