Drug Runners Blend In on Quiet Streets : Neighborhoods: Police believe dealers seeking anonymity are attracted to Sylmar because of its fast growth, racial mix and freeway access.

Gilberto Saavedra appeared to know exactly what he wanted when he went shopping for a house.

He chose a tidy, four-bedroom stucco and brick house on a quiet street in a racially mixed Sylmar neighborhood.

The real estate agent who handled the sale two months ago said Saavedra, a 41-year-old Colombian national, went house-hunting without an agent and came to him only after he made his choice.

He agreed to a $190,000 price with little haggling, and financed it with a bank mortgage.

The neighborhood looked like the ideal spot to raise a family--or, as authorities said, run a money-laundering operation for drug dealers.

Police raided the house Tuesday night and seized more than $15 million of what they said is drug-related money.

The house, in the 13800 block of Kinbrook Street, is about two miles from the warehouse where police and federal agents last year discovered a record stash of cocaine valued at $6 billion.

Although the two operations do not appear to be related, authorities suggested Thursday that it is more than coincidence that two of the country’s biggest seizures were in Sylmar.

“Why Sylmar? That’s what we are all asking,” said an investigator familiar with both cases.

According to law enforcement officials, Sylmar fits the profile of what foreign-born drug runners look for in a community where they want to establish businesses, homes or both: fast growth, which means they can move in without attracting much attention; a racial mix, so foreigners do not stand out, and freeway access, so they can move themselves and their product quickly through Southern California.

Centered in a roughly shaped triangle bounded by the Foothill, Golden State and Simi Valley freeways, Sylmar is a fast-growing community of small businesses and homes.

Similar conditions exist in many Southern California communities and some authorities were reluctant Thursday to single out Sylmar as unique.

Deputy Chief Glenn Levant of the Los Angeles Police Department said police uncover drug operations in similar neighborhoods several times a year, but because they are smaller, they go unnoticed.

Levant said a manual seized in a smuggling operation several years ago describes the ideal neighborhood in which to locate as quiet, respectable and filled with children.

“It could be anywhere,” Levant said.

Even so, the two major busts were in Sylmar.

“The big one from last year is known all over the nation in the law enforcement community,” said Police Cmdr. Chet Spencer. “Sylmar stands out as a transport center and a major place where cartels store their drugs.

“Sylmar is the fastest-growing community in the city,” Spencer said. “It’s convenient and quiet. It is a key spot for truck transport and access to the Santa Clarita and Antelope valleys and points north--Las Vegas, Ventura County, all over.”

“You can go anywhere from there,” said DEA spokesman John Marcello.

Capt. Tim McBride of the Foothill Division, which patrols Sylmar, said the ethnic mix in the community made it easy for Saavedra to fade into the neighborhood.

The block where he lives has families of whites, blacks, Asians and Latinos.

From the outside, Saavedra’s house suggested a typical middle-class lifestyle.

Like most of his neighbors, Saavedra hired a gardener to tend his lawn and flower beds.

Saavedra also hired a woman as a maid, who authorities believe was brought in to maintain the appearance that the house was an ordinary residence.

Inside, investigators seized bundles of cash they said were bound for Colombia.

They also found several automated counting machines.

U.S. Customs spokesman John Miller said one room of the house was set aside solely for counting money.

Neighbors were surprised, though none could recall anything about Saavedra.

The reason, McBride suggested, was that he was a professional at not being noticed.

“These people are not stupid,” McBride said. “They know how to fit in.”

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