By TIM MCGLONE, The Virginian-Pilot

� February 20, 2004

NORFOLK � Federal agents raiding a home this week in search of a suspect in

a $2 million heroin ring instead found a grandmother, a 3-year-old boy and

others who say they were kicked and terrorized.

The family living in the three-bedroom ranch near Wards Corner and a neighbor

said they were kicked in the head and forced to lie handcuffed on the ground

before agents realized the suspect was not there.

David Gonzalez, 20, said Thursday that the suspect who agents were looking for

hadn�t lived there for about a year. Gonzalez and his sister moved into the house

in the 7600 block of Newport Ave. in August.

� My nerves are very shattered by this,� said Mary Morales, 58, of Connecticut,

who arrived earlier this week to visit her daughter, Maria Rios , and grandchild

who live at the home.

Federal officials said they were acting on reliable information and surveillance

that the suspect, Jeffrey Tarrats, was seen at the house this week. Another

suspect, Larry Kasiem Doweary, also is listed as having lived at that home,

according to an indictment unsealed Wednesday in U.S. District Court.

Tarrats and Doweary are two of eight people

named in the indictment as suspects in a $2

million New York-to-Norfolk heroin distribution

ring.

Multiple pounds of heroin were sold between

1999 and September, when the last sale was

recorded, according to court records. Federal

officials call it one of the largest heroin rings

busted in recent years.

Gonzalez and Morales said federal agents

should have known that Tarrats had not lived

there since August. However, they produced

mail that had just arrived for Tarrats this

week. Agents took away other pieces of mail

but found no drugs.

Gonzalez said he took over the lease from a

girlfriend of his cousin. He said he never sold drugs and had no idea drugs had

been dealt from the house before he moved in.

Witnesses said when 15 to 20 agents raided the home Wednesday, they

busted the front door to pieces and bashed in closet doors searching for a

suspect.

Cursing and screaming with their rifles drawn, the agents forced everyone in the

house on the floor, witnesses said.

Ray Orr, a neighbor, was dropping off his 3-year-old son to be watched for the

morning when they got caught in the raid.

Orr said an agent used a boot to press his head, face down, into the carpet as

they wrapped his wrists with plastic straps.

Gonzalez said he was kicked in the head as he tried to explain that they weren�t

drug dealers.

�I�m still in shock from it,� Orr said. �It was rude. I think it was just terrible.�

Morales and her 15-year-old granddaughter pointed to the red marks that remain

on their wrists.

Officials with the Drug Enforcement Administration and the U.S. Attorney�s

Office said the raid was handled properly. They declined to comment further.

Six of the eight suspects were arrested Wednesday where and will face

hearings in federal court next week. Tarrat s has not been arrested.

Reach Tim McGlone at 446-2343 or tim.mcglone@pilotonline.com