The two-bedroom stucco house at 3304 Drew St. in Glassell Park was once the center of one of the most menacing drug marketplaces in Los Angeles.
From the house, Maria "Chata" Leon, an illegal immigrant, her family and associates controlled drug and gang activity on the street for years, police said.
During at least two raids at the house, according to court documents, officers found guns and drugs as well as surveillance cameras, laser trip wires and a shrine to Jesus Malverde, a Mexican folk hero whom drug traffickers have made their patron saint.
Known as the Satellite House, for the enormous black satellite dish that once stood in the driveway, the home "was a terrifying monument to the power of the Avenues gang" that dominated the two blocks of Drew Street, said City Atty. Rocky Delgadillo.
But all that was history Wednesday morning.
As police and city officials looked on, a Caterpillar excavator took a bite out of the roof, then ate its way through the rest of the structure, and a half-hour later the Satellite House was rubble.
In 2007, Delgadillo's office -- using its TOUGH program to go after houses used as gang hangouts -- won a lawsuit to close the house as a public nuisance.
When the owners -- who city officials allege are straw men covering for Leon and her family -- didn't make repairs, the city's Building and Safety Commission approved plans to demolish it.
Eusterbio Renteria watched the destruction of the house that he said was the source of much family pain. "They should have done this 10 years ago," said Renteria, who has lived on Drew Street since 1972 and watched two of his sons join the gang, using the house as a hangout.
His son Carlos is in prison. According to a law enforcement report, he was heard on a surveillance tape requesting that a friend send him a photo of the Satellite House because he wanted to tattoo it on his body.
A few yards away, Los Angeles Police Officer Steve Aguilar also watched the demolition.
"It feels good," said Aguilar, who patrolled Drew Street for five of its worst years and recently became a detective in another part of the city. "It's been a long time in the making."
The 12-square-block enclave around Drew Street was among the city's most dangerous for years, police said.
Hooded gang members lurked behind parked cars and on apartment balconies, police and residents said. At night, tires squealed and gunshots echoed while neighbors huddled in their homes.
