A Palm Coast man was arrested Monday after he swam through a canal while fleeing a traffic stop, the Flagler County Sheriff’s Office said.
A deputy tried to pull over the driver, Tyler Sweeney, 22, near Rae Drive, but Sweeney fled at a high rate of speed and crashed into an AT&T box, the Sheriff’s Office said.
Sweeney then exited the car and ran through a wooded area before jumping into a canal and swimming toward Raintree Circle, deputies said.
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Deputies found Sweeney at his home on Rainbow Lane. He told deputies he ran because he did not have a valid driver’s license, officials said.
“If you run from us, we’re going to find you. So, you might as well save your energy,” Sheriff Rick Staly said.
However, a deputy who was investigating the crash site said he found a mason jar filled with marijuana, four oxycodone pills, two individual bags of marijuana and a gun with the serial number scratched off.
Sweeney was charged with marijuana possession of 20 grams or more, possession of drug paraphernalia, possession of an altered firearm, driving while license suspended with knowledge, possession of marijuana with the intent to distribute, leaving the scene of a crash with property damage and possession of oxycodone.
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“In this case, this guy went to jail very tired and wet with more charges than if he had just stopped,” Staly said.
Sweeney was booked into the Sheriff Perry Hall Inmate Detention Facility, where he is being held on $12,000 bail.
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