HOUSTON - Long before the SWAT team arrived Wednesday morning, neighbors figured something bad had been happening at the house on the corner of Frey and Gilpin in southeast Houston.
Strange behavior by visitors had become commonplace at all hours of the night.
One day, a neighbor recalls, a guy walked into the house carrying a wide screen television and walked out stuffing a plastic bag in his pocket. One night, another remembers, a couple of people had sex in the backseat of a car parked in a neighbor's driveway.
"There would be cars here parked until, like, four in the morning, with guys sleeping in them," said Natalie Jones, who lived next door to the house.
Their suspicions were confirmed when a team of undercover narcotics officers from the Pasadena Police Department aided by a SWAT team raided the house, arresting four people and confiscating everything from methamphetamine to pharmaceuticals.
Officers tore out the steel bars blocking a front window that was secured with chains and padlocks.
"The house is heavily fortified," said Lt. John Dombrowa of the Pasadena Police Department. "There's bars on every window. And actually, most of the interior doors on the house are fortified."
As officers searched the home for drugs, weapons and other evidence, a man who lived in the house drove up and was arrested. He identified himself as Alonzo Longoria and said he'd recently been released from prison.
"I just got home less than ten days ago and anything that was going on here, I told 'em to stop," he said as he stood in handcuffs outside the home.
Neighbors expressed relief the house had been raided.
"I feel like a lot of the neighbors were scared, too …" said Jessica Fontana, who lives next door. "I know I'm going to be happier."
