SAN ANTONIO – Four men and a woman have been taken into custody after a Christmas Eve raid on a suspected drug house on San Antonio’s East Side, in the Dignowity Hill neighborhood.

Members of the San Antonio Police Department’s narcotics unit, with help from a SWAT team, stormed the home in the 900 block of Lamar Street around 5:30 a.m. Thursday. They fired gas canisters into the home and ordered the people inside to come out.

“We didn't want them to be reaching for weapons of destroying evidence,” said Lt. Kevin Luzius, explaining why officers did not try to force their way into the home.

Luzius said detectives had the home under investigation for months and determined that it was the site of some major drug deals, mostly involving cocaine. He said based on the investigation, detectives knew the takedown could be dangerous.

"We learned that this place was probably heavily fortified and possibly the subjects could be armed inside based on their criminal history,” he said.

Luzius said that some, if not all, of the suspects had violent pasts, but he would not elaborate on the specific types of crimes.

He said the home had numerous locks on the doors, burglar bars on the windows and surveillance cameras covering “every angle of the home.” Police also found cameras in the trees surrounding the home, he said.

The house that was raided is down the street from Juan Garcia’s home. He said he woke up to what he thought were gunshots. In reality, it was the sound of the gas canisters being fired into the home.

“Then all of a sudden we started hearing a lot of noise. I guess police officers were asking people to come out of the house,” Garcia said.

As a past president of the Dignowity Hill Neighborhood Association, Garcia said he remembers a time when he would hear gunshots and sirens on a regular basis. Lately, though, the area seemed to be changing for the positive.

Garcia said he is happy to hear that police have zeroed in what they identified as a trouble spot.

“If it’s a drug house, then it needs to go,” he said. “It’s good that they are cleaning these kinds of things up.”

Police said the people who were taken into custody face a variety of charges.