EAST PALO ALTO — Authorities raided two homes packed with young children, 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 in East Palo Alto at 5 a.m. Tuesday, said Bob Cooke, a special agent with the state Attorney General's Bureau of Narcotic Enforcement.

While authorities expected to find children in the houses, they were shocked to discover roughly 30, 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 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, Cooke said. They arrested Tafuno Tuitolo, 20, at that location, 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 is ongoing, Cooke said.