Police Seize Weapons, Drugs in Raid on Inn : Crime: About 20 arrests are made as officers crack down in west Anaheim, an area where problems have been on the increase.

Authorities arrested about 20 people and seized weapons and narcotics in a raid Thursday night at Valencia Inn.

At 8 p.m., 72 officers with search or arrest warrants stormed about 27 rooms in the inn at 2630 W. Lincoln Ave. The raid was part of an escalated effort “to make a dent” in criminal activity that has arisen in the past few months on the west side of Anaheim, said Marc Hedgpeth, commander of the Police Department special enforcement bureau.

“This part of the city has seen a marked increase in calls,” he said. “If you look around you, you can see it has deteriorated substantially.”

The raid followed a similar operation last week at El Dorado, where several people were arrested and guns and drugs were seized.

In their investigation, police learned that a number of outstanding search or arrest warrants named people living at the Valencia Inn.

Thursday night, a 30-year-old woman jumped into her closet when police entered her apartment. As Kathleen Bakos was arrested on suspicion of burglary, her mother, Patsy Turner, 48, said: “This is pitiful. Now we’re going to be out in the street, because we have nothing.”

In another apartment, a couple with seven children, all under the age of 10, were arrested, the man on suspicion of possessing methamphetamines, and the woman on a traffic warrant.

Police were to take the children to homes of relatives.

“I’ve been in this business for 21 years,” said Detective Werner Raes, “and the kids are who I feel sorry for the most.”

In one room, police found a briefcase with five packaged grams of methamphetamines.

In another, they arrested a man with a loaded, sawed-off shotgun and a package of methamphetamines. A woman and a 6-month-old baby shared the room.

Most of the arrests were for narcotics or parole violations, police said.