By Jane Prendergast
The Cincinnati Enquirer

Joseph Person, 18, is arrested on charges of disorderly conduct and resisting arrest. Officers Ron Fuller (left) and Ron Kullgren were taking part in a sweep. (Jeff Swinger photos) | ZOOM |

A drug sweep Thursday in Evanston was the first step in what police hope will be enable them to "take back" a problematic apartment building in the Five Points area.

Cincinnati police got an extra $50,000 last month in federal grant money just to crack down on the St. Leger Apartments, said District 2 Capt. Michael Cureton. Law enforcement comes first, he said, followed by the installation of surveillance cameras and reopening the police substation across the street. It had been closed since it burned during the April 2001 riots.

"We want to recapture this Five Points corner,'' said the captain, who called the afternoon-into-evening sweep "Operation St. Cleanup.''

Police enter St. Leger Apartments in Evanston to serve warrants. | ZOOM |

Officers arrested the one man Cureton wanted the most - Kenneth Stone, 25, wanted on three felony warrants for drugs.

Later, sitting in the district station waiting to go to jail, Stone insisted he didn't do anything wrong: "You don't have me on nothing," he said.

Five men and four women - the women lived in the apartments - were sought. By sundown, officers had four of them, plus another three people.

One of them, Carlos Johnson, 20, was with Stone when he was arrested. Police said officers found almost three grams of crack in his pocket.

E-mail jprendergast@enquirer.com