“Thanks. I like this,” a young mother told police officers Thursday when they announced a public effort to drive out drug dealers from a large apartment complex on the city’s southwest side.
“That’s good. Get ’em all off the street,” Yolanda Whiteside, 22, told Lt. Dave Copher shortly after investigators made their fifth arrest of the day.
“It’s good for the kids,” said another young woman.
Police said the undercover investigation that became public Thursday is called Operation Horseshoe for the shape of the driveway in the 110-unit West Elgin Apartments in Mulberry Court.
“Drug dealers would stand out there pretty much 24 hours a day,” Copher said.
The undercover operation was conducted by Elgin police, federal agents from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, and state police from the North Central Narcotics Task Force.
To hammer home the message that police want to shut down the Mulberry Court drug operation, uniformed officers passed out fliers in the neighborhood Thursday afternoon announcing that Jeffrey Svoboda, 24, an Elgin police officer, had moved into an apartment across the street.
He has been there two months and will regularly patrol the area.
Next week, Elgin police will set up road blocks around the neighborhood to stop all cars coming in and check for routine violations. Copher said this is part of the effort to persuade drug users to stay away.
“We’re letting them know we are here,” he said. “And if they don’t belong here, they’re not wanted.”
Elgin police have also gotten the approval of local landlords to arrest people for trespassing who enter the apartment complex or nearby buildings who do not live there and have no one in particular to visit.
“None of the people we arrested today had a Mulberry address. They all came from the east side,” Copher said.
The Elgin residents arrested Thursday, all on charges of delivery of cocaine, were: Steven Binion, 22, of 1250 Apple Lane; Darren Wilder, 27, of 123 S. State St.; George Singleton, of 1233 Apple Lane; Larry Williams, 18, address unknown; and a male juvenile.
On Tuesday, police arrested Bessie M. Scott, 40, of 1250 Apple Lane, on charges of possession of cocaine and marijuana. She is Binion’s mother, Copher said.
