Man gets probation in drug case

WARREN -- A homeowner, one of five people charged in a Niles drug raid in October, has been sentenced to five years' probation after pleading guilty to four counts of trafficking in cocaine in January.
Charles A. Whittaker, of 519 Mason Street, was sentenced Thursday in the Trumbull County Common Pleas Courtroom of Judge John Stuard. Whittaker was also ordered to pay a $500 fine and court costs.
Five people were charged after police raided Whittaker's house. Police Chief Bruce Simeone said the house was a nuisance because of the drug activity, and about a dozen drug buys were made by police at the house, leading up to the raid.
Simeone said the house was boarded up under Project Phoenix, which allows drug houses to be boarded up for a year in hopes drug dealing in the neighborhood will be reduced.
Police seized $1,800 cash, a gun and OxyContin, a painkiller, in the raid. The house has been the target of two previous raids and a source of complaints at city council meetings by neighbors who reported drug peddling and prostitution in the neighborhood.