Feds target another Atlanta house for drug forfeiture

Here's more news on Atlanta's blight problem, which we've chronicled in a series of stories since November.

The U.S. Attorney’s Office in Atlanta is trying to seize another property that they say is breeding crime on the streets just west of downtown's Falcon’s stadium. Once again, the building is owned by a neighborhood outsider.

A December story in The Atlanta Journal-Constitution took readers to the Jett Street Apartments, which federal prosecutors are trying to seize from its Woodstock owner as part of U.S. Attorney Sally Quillian Yates' initiative to root out crime in the English Avenue neighborhood. Police were called there for fights, drug dealing and other crimes some 500 times since 2009. Neighbors complained about trash and rats there for years.

Prosecutors' newest target is a single-family house about eight blocks away. Hakim Alladin, whose listed address is located on the east side of town, bought 541 English Ave. NW as a foreclosure in 2009, according to Fulton County property records. He paid just $20,000.

Since 2013, police raided the house four times, finding stashes of heroin, cocaine, crack and MDMA, according to a filing by federal prosecutors. They also uncovered scales, drug ledgers, ammunition, a surveillance camera and other items consistent with a drug sales operation. Within days of a bust, the dealing would begin again.

Police warned Alladin in writing about drug dealing at the house, but received no response, the filing states.

Alladin has yet to respond in court to the suit. Attempts to reach him for comment were unsuccessful.