BY JANET C. WETZEL
The Cincinnati Enquirer
MIDDLETOWN -- City police teamed with federal authorities and the Warren County Drug Task Force on Tuesday in a sweep that netted 12 people on drug charges.
Sixteen adults were indicted on 44 felonies and seven misdemeanor charges as part of an investigation of drug activity in two apartments. The others were being sought.
The raid is another phase of Operation Safe Home, part of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development's efforts to eliminate drug-related activities from public housing.
Six women and 10 men were indicted on charges ranging from trafficking in drugs, trafficking in marijuana and aggravated possession -- all felonies -- to sale of dangerous drugs, a misdemeanor.
"This specific operation concentrated on complaints received from the residents of the city's two high-rise complexes," the Middletown Police Division said in a release.
"These high-rises, originally built to house the elderly, have been a source of criminal activity over the last several years."
The operation this week targeted residents and others who were involved in the sale of illegal narcotics and prescribed medications, the release said.
Nine of the 12 arrested Tuesday live in the high-rises on South Clinton Street and North Verity Parkway.
Operation Safe Home was launched in early 1996 after reports that the public housing complexes were becoming drug dens.
In that first phase, 113 people were indicted in Middletown and Hamilton, including 26 juveniles. The charges ranged from aggravated drug trafficking to drug abuse, trafficking in food stamps and weapons-related charges.
Housing authorities could not be reached for comment Tuesday but have said drugs have always been a problem in the complexes here and other cities.
Authorities hope the raids send the message that drug activity won't be tolerated.
Last spring in Hamilton, 37 adults and 18 juveniles were charged in another phase of the operation after months of undercover investigations.
Tuesday's sweep was made by Middletown police, in cooperation with Butler Metropolitan Housing Authority, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development's Office of the Inspector General, Ohio Attorney General's Office, Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation and Identificationand the Warren County Drug Task Force.
