AGENTS RAID HUGE LAWRENCEVILLE METH LAB AS PART OF STRIKE ON CARTEL

The white, split-level house sits in a middle-class Lawrenceville
neighborhood, walking distance from an elementary school. "The only
thing that was was missing, it didn't have a picket fence," Gwinnett
County District Attorney Danny Porter said.

Authorities said Thursday the house was a meth lab -- one of the
largest federal agents have ever seen -- used by the violent Mexican
drug cartel La Familia.

"I'm shocked because this neighborhood is full of kids," said Brooke
Payne, 30, who lives next door with her husband and son. "My son is 6,
he runs around, across this yard to the kids who live over in the next
house...It's just unreal."

Wednesday, she watched as authorities seized 174 pounds of crystal
methamphetamine from the house on La Maison Drive and took La Familia
members out in handcuffs.

It was part of a nationwide sweep officials called the largest single
strike at Mexican drug operations in the U.S. In all, 303 people were
arrested in 38 cities from Boston to Seattle.

In metro Atlanta, authorities arrested 31 people in Gwinnett County,
three in Cobb and one in Clayton while recovering a total of 188
pounds of crystal meth, 17 kilos of cocaine, 13 guns and $50,000.

Gwinnett police officers raided 10 locations in that county alone.
Rodney Benson, special agent in charge of the DEA's Atlanta Field
Division, said metro Atlanta, Dallas and the Los Angeles area were La
Familia's biggest operational centers.

In the La Maison house, La Familia members used flammable chemicals to
crystallize a liquid solution of methamphetamine manufactured in
Mexico, Benson said.

A neighbor told agents that a young woman and her baby who were living
in the house left for Mexico after the baby got burned.

"It's clearly indicative of contact with the caustic chemicals used,"
Porter said.

La Familia controls much of the crystal meth market in the U.S.,
according to authorities.

In July, after a dozen Mexican police officers were found murdered,
the Mexican and U.S. governments stepped up efforts to crack down on
La Familia.

Attorney General Eric Holder pledged Thursday to keep hitting La
Familia, saying the U.S. would attack them at all levels, from the
leadership to their supply chains reaching far into the United States.

Wednesday's raids involved hundreds of federal, state and local
law-enforcement officers across metro Atlanta. Benson called the
so-called Project Coronado a severe blow to La Familia.

"We have to keep the pressure on and that's what we're gonna do,"
Benson said.

For Payne, who is expecting her second child, Wednesday's raid brought
shock, then relief.

"It's crazy to think that the house (next door) could blow up and
catch on fire," she said. "It kind of makes me sad, but I'm very
thankful they got it when they did. Very thankful."

- -- The Associated Press contributed to this article.