CENTRALIA, IL — The City of Centralia has entered into an agreement with the owner of property in the 500 block of North Locust Street where two recent drug busts were conducted.

According to Police Chief Greg Dodson, the owner of the property that was found uninhabitable and was condemned by Code Enforcement has agreed to provide dumpsters necessary if the City demolishes the home.

Following the arrest earlier this month of 21-year-old Imari Kaufman of that address, Dodson called the property a “hotbed of drug activity in the Centralia area” and noted the earlier arrest of 57-year-old Michael Lawson in December when he was a resident of that home.

Lawson remains in the Marion County Jail and is still facing a Class 1 felony charge in Marion County Court for the alleged possession of between 15 and 100 grams of methamphetamine.

He’s also facing a federal charge of possession with the intent to distribute a controlled substance.

Kaufman was arrested on three separate counts of Delivery of a Controlled Substance after police had performed three separate controlled drug buys from her.

She was taken to the Marion County Jail following her arrest but was later released without the State’s Attorney’s Office filing formal charges against her.