Steps taken to keep drug house in Niles closed

WARREN -- Niles police and the Ohio Attorney General's office have taken steps to shut down a house on Mason Street in Niles used for drug activity.
Judge Andrew Logan of Trumbull County Common Pleas court granted a preliminary injunction Tuesday to have the house at 519 Mason closed up to prevent future drug activity, said David Toepfer, assistant Trumbull County prosecutor.
The house has been the scene of drug activity in the past, as evidence by the conviction last week of Charles A. Whittaker of that address, Toepfer said. Whittaker was convicted last week on multiple counts of trafficking in cocaine, Toepfer said. He will be sentenced later.
Toepfer said the house was boarded up in October, and the preliminary injunction allows that to continue while the Ohio attorney general's office pursues a permanent injunction to keep the house closed. A hearing on that will occur in about 90 days, he said.
The attorney general is acting on information provided by the Niles Police Department's narcotics unit, Toepfer said, adding that he stood in for the attorney general's office in court Tuesday.