Police Arrest 16 People in 8 Drug Raids : Investigation: Targets include homes and an auto repair shop in La Habra area. Two children are found sleeping next to a suspected methamphetamine lab.

Authorities arrested 16 people in La Habra and La Habra Heights during a series of dawn raids Thursday on sites where police say methamphetamines were produced and sold.

A task force of about 70 officers with search warrants swooped down on eight sites, including five homes and a car repair shop in a Lambert Road industrial building that allegedly doubled as a drug factory.

Police SWAT teams arrested eight people and found two children sleeping inside a converted bay next to the shop, which contained chemicals and drug-manufacturing equipment, said La Habra Police Lt. Wayne Lowry.

It was the biggest of three methamphetamine sweeps in the city in the past year and a half, Lowry said, and the latest in a string of raids on methamphetamine labs throughout Orange County. Authorities have raided 18 such labs countywide this year, five of them housed in industrial complexes.

“It’s the drug of choice right now for some people. It’s a stimulant and it’s cheaper than cocaine,” Lowry said. “There’s a ready market--and individuals ready to take the risk and cook it.”

Neighbors of the car shop at 2120 E. Lambert Road had reported strong chemical odors and suspicious activity there about a month ago, Lowry said. He said a police investigation yielded evidence that the shop and a site in a separate complex at 740 E. Lambert Road were used to make methamphetamine, a potent form of speed. Police obtained search warrants for the suspected factories, along with five other homes in La Habra and neighboring La Habra Heights that were suspected sales points.

A task force of federal, state and local officials swooped down on all eight sites at the same time Thursday, arresting the 16 people on charges ranging from conspiracy to manufacture and sell drugs to unrelated warrants. Police also recovered beakers, hoses and other equipment used to make the drug, plus chemicals and an undetermined amount of the finished powder, Lowry said.

Gloria Juarez, who manages the apartment building next door to the 10-bay industrial building, said “they worked 24 hours a day. . . . A lot of people called me to complain that they couldn’t sleep.”

Juarez said police visited two days earlier asking to use a vacant apartment to watch the suspected lab.

One of the side-by-side bays raided by police was used for the drug operation and the other was converted into sleeping quarters, said Gary Hudson, who heads a unit in the state Bureau of Narcotic Enforcement that tracks methamphetamine labs in Orange County.

He said the two children were found in the converted area, next to the bay where volatile chemicals allegedly were turned into the oil that is later processed into methamphetamine powder. Hudson said police seized 10 gallons of the oil.

Lowry said the children--a 4-year-old boy and 11-year-old girl--were being interviewed by officials from the county Social Service Agency and would be placed in protective custody. He said it was unclear whether the parents were among those arrested.

The complex has 10 bays leased to a variety of businesses. The owner of a cabinet-making shop next to the alleged drug-processing lab unsuccessfully pleaded with police to let him past crime-scene tape to go to his shop. Next door, the Kiddie Kastle Preschool was empty after authorities warned the owner to evacuate just before the raid.

“I’m shocked, absolutely shocked,” said preschool owner Jann Zaratzian-Cohen. “We had no idea that this was going on.”