Centralia Police Chief Greg Dodson says a Centralia man is in custody following a drug trafficking investigation and execution of a search warrant at his home.
After completing the investigation and obtaining a warrant, the Centralia Police Department in conjunction with the FBI Task Force waited until Tyron Offutt left his home in the 200 block of North Cherry on Wednesday and took him into custody following a traffic stop. A search warrant was then executed on his home. Two handguns, a large sum of cash as well as a large quantity of suspected methamphetamine and cannabis were recovered.
Offutt was taken to the Marion County Jail to be held until he appears in Federal Court for the Southern District of Illinois on all related charges to the investigation and warrant. Charges on the arrest warrant have not been released.
The FBI Drug Task Force is comprised of local law enforcement officers from the Centralia, Carlyle, and Salem Police Departments, the Marion and Clinton County Sheriff’s Departments, and the FBI.
Dodson says this case is an example of collaborative resources that the Federal Drug Task Force provides to not only the Centralia community but all the surrounding communities. He notes no one agency has the manpower or financial resources to conduct these type of operations independently, but with the support of the FBI and the pooled investigators from the areas local Law Enforcement agencies, these types of criminals can be dealt with much more effectively and can be prosecuted on a Federal level where they face more stringent penalties, also removing this burden from local prosecutors.
