One Killed in Raids on 2 ‘Rock Houses’

Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputies, using tow trucks to tear the doors off two suspected “rock houses,” shot and killed one man and arrested 10 other suspects in a pre-dawn raid today in South Los Angeles.

Deputies said the slain suspect, described as a 58-year-old Cuban refugee who came to the United States during the 1980 Mariel boatlift, was fatally shot during a shoot-out inside a heavily fortified house in the 700 block of West Imperial Highway from which cocaine had been sold.

The shooting erupted as about 25 deputies were serving search warrants on the house at 5:10 a.m. in connection with the Jan. 17 drug-related slaying of Pablo Valles, 36, in the Lennox area.

Sheriff’s spokesman Deputy John Broussard said that Special Weapons Team members were fired upon when they entered the house.

Undercover narcotics deputies had made a drug buy at the house as recently as a week ago, deputies said. Several neighborhood residents said the house was a well-known cocaine distribution center.

Identified Themselves

Sheriff’s spokesman Deputy Stephen Lee said that members of the Special Weapons Team identified themselves with a bullhorn, then used the tow trucks to pull the doors off the two houses on the Imperial Highway lot.

“The deputies then used flash bangs (diversionary explosive devices) and tear gas and made their entry,” Lee said. “They heard shots inside. It’s not clear what happened after that. They made entry, and one suspect was killed.”

Lee said the house where the man was killed “is the hub of a series of rock houses” and that “all of them involved Marielitos “--the Cuban refugees who entered the United States during the boatlift.

An undetermined amount of drugs and several weapons, including a sawed-off shotgun, were recovered from the house. The 10 people arrested there were taken to the sheriff’s substation in Lennox for booking on unspecified charges, Lee said.

The name of the slain suspect was being withheld pending notification of his relatives. Deputies did not say if he was a suspect in the Valles homicide or in the recent narcotics transaction.

Three other houses in South Los Angeles linked to the Valles homicide were also raided today, Lee said.