WHITE PLAINS, N.Y. -- The 25-year-old son of Miami police Chief John Timoney was arrested for trying to buy 400 pounds of marijuana from an undercover federal agent, the Drug Enforcement Administration said Wednesday.

A court complaint said Sean Timoney of Philadelphia gave the agent a gym bag filled with approximately $450,000 in cash.

Timoney and Jae Seu, 23, of Glenside, Pa., were arrested Tuesday night in Spring Valley, said Elizabeth Jordan, a spokeswoman for the DEA in Manhattan. They were charged with conspiracy to possess and distribute a controlled substance.

The two defendants were taken to Albany for arraignment and were ordered held there pending a bail hearing Friday.

The complaint said the defendants met in a Spring Valley hotel room with DEA agent Leonard Uller at 8:30 p.m. After handing over the cash as a "partial payment," they left the hotel room to inspect the purchased marijuana and were arrested, it said.

The meeting had been arranged by Seu and Uller, according to the complaint.

Miami police said Chief Timoney was "aware of the arrest."

"He does not have all the details and he's not going to comment on it publicly because it's a private family matter," Miami police spokesman Delrish Moss said.

Timoney, who rose through the ranks of the New York Police Department to become a chief and first deputy commissioner, then became chief of police in Philadelphia before moving to Miami.

He is well-known in law enforcement circles and is often sought out by television networks to comment on police affairs.