YOUNGSTOWN Drug activity prompts police to close store

By PETER H. MILLIKEN
VINDICATOR STAFF WRITER
YOUNGSTOWN -- Anyone who wants to enter the Stiles Super Market today will find it padlocked.
Police closed the East Side convenience store Thursday evening after city officials declared it a public nuisance because of drug sales on and near the premises.
Judge Theresa Dellick of Mahoning County Juvenile Court signed the temporary restraining order to close and padlock the store at 1922 McGuffey Road.
The order had been requested by John A. McNally IV, city law director, in a civil nuisance complaint against Dullah S. Alkinni, the building owner; Mohammed Haider, the store operator, who lives in an apartment above the store; Haider's son, Rafat A. Saleh; and the store itself.
Raided and searched
The city police street crime unit, vice squad and canine unit and state liquor and food stamp agents raided the store and executed a search warrant Thursday night.
"We've made drug buys out of the store and recovered a number of guns and drugs on the premises," said Police Chief Robert Bush. "This store became one of the six or seven places where we started GRIP two months ago that came up last year and this year as a trouble spot," he added. GRIP is the police department's Gun Reduction and Interdiction Program.
The complaint alleges that, earlier this month, members of the vice squad made controlled buys of suspected crack cocaine at the store. Police said they received complaints from neighbors about sales of illegal drugs on the premises.
Police received complaints from residents this spring and summer of gunfire, loitering and apparent drug sales in the parking lot, he added.
"A lot of criminal activity on this side of town originated or terminated right here in this area," Bush said. "We felt that this place was a time bomb. Based on the guns we took out of this lot, eventually it was going to erupt into a shooting, and that's why we were kind of anxious to get it shut down."
Patrons had illegal drugs
Police also confiscated illegal drugs from some store patrons in the raid, he added.
"This was a hub of illegal activity in the late-night and early-morning hours on a regular basis, with numerous arrests made for drug and firearms violations," said Lt. Robin Lees, the department's public information officer. "Some of the drug violators were, in fact, juveniles who were violating curfew."
"We're excited to see the presence of the police having that type of opportunity to bring cessation to some of the criminal elements and activities within our community and actually restoring some of the elements of neighborhood back into our community. It's refreshing," said the Rev. Lewis Macklin, an East Side resident and pastor of Holy Trinity Missionary Baptist Church on the South Side, who watched as the raid took place.
The Rev. Mr. Macklin added that he'd sometimes see 20 cars parked at the store in the wee hours of the morning.
A sign outside the store says it is open 24 hours, and no-loitering signs are posted on all three sides of the building and on a utility pole outside the store at McGuffey Road and Stiles Avenue.
House's water bill
Earlier in the day, police also had the city water department shut off the water to a house at 1923 McGuffey Road, across from the store. That house had an unpaid $3,200 water bill, said Detective Sgt. Patrick Kelly. Police then red-tagged the house as unfit for human habitation. Any occupants have 72 hours to leave the premises, Kelly said.
"If they don't pay their water bill and come up to code with the house, then they're not allowed in the house, period. So, if we find anybody in there, then we can arrest them for criminal trespass," he explained.