EAST PALO ALTO — Authorities raided two East Palo Alto homes packed with young children early Tuesday morning, seizing crack cocaine and a handgun and arresting a 20-year-old man, a narcotics agent said.

About 50 law enforcement officers from state and local agencies stormed the two houses on the 2500 block of Baylor Street and the 2400 block of Fordham Street at about 5 a.m., said Bob Cooke, a special agent with the state Attorney General's Bureau of Narcotic Enforcement.

While authorities expected to find children in the homes, they were shocked to discover roughly 30 youngsters, ranging in age from infants to teenagers, sleeping there, Cooke said.

"Our information was there would be weapons here,

so we had asked for SWAT to provide assistance," Cooke said. "We had the buses standing by to provide the kids a safe place to sit and be warm." Child Protective Services was also at the scene, Cooke added, noting that he did not know whether that agency would allow the children to remain at home with their parents.

Agents and police seized five crack cocaine rocks and a 9 mm semiautomatic handgun from the home on Baylor, which was the smaller of the two, Cooke said. They arrested 20-year-old Tafuno Tuitolo at the same home, he added.

"They might have caught a drift that something was going on in the neighborhood — evidence has legs," Cooke said. "Both those houses are associated. ... we hit the right places." The investigation

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is ongoing, Cooke said.

E-mail Jessica Bernstein-Wax at jbernstein@dailynewsgroup.com.