Map of Pennsylvania highlighting Luzerne County (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Editor’s note: Now that clearly sends a message that drug dealers aren’t welcome in Hazleton!
HAZLETON, PA — In addition to potentially losing her freedom, a woman arrested in a drug raid Friday also could lose her home under a new initiative of the Hazleton Police Department.
After police served a search warrant at 134 Pine Tree Road and arrested the three people inside, a city official posted a dark red sign in the front door window with the word “CONDEMNED.”
“The new idea actually has been on the books for quite some time — using the city’s nuisance property ordinance” to clean up neighborhoods, Police Chief Frank DeAndrea said at a press conference at City Hall Friday afternoon. “And since the mayor has put code enforcement and the health department under the supervision of the police department, I thought we would attempt to take a new approach.”
When advised Thursday of the operation planned for Friday by his narcotics unit lieutenant, DeAndrea called Luzerne County District Attorney Stefanie Salavantis and requested her view on the city condemning the Pine Tree Road house “because it’s unsafe for human cohabitation, it’s a danger to the community,” DeAndrea said.
Read more: http://www.timesleader.com/news/local-news/394624/Drug-houses-seized-under-Hazleton-plan
