HERNANDO COUNTY, FL (352today.com) – A man was arrested by Hernando County deputies after they say they caught him with several illegal drugs during a traffic stop.
On Saturday, Nov. 11., deputies say they pulled over Dustin Swanton around 3 a.m. near Deltona Boulevard and Cortez Boulevard for failing to maintain his lane. They say they asked him for his driver’s license, and he told them he didn’t have one.
The Hernando County Sheriff’s Office (HCSO) shared in a Facebook post that deputies noticed a clear bag with a ‘crystal-like substance’ inside of Swanton’s white pick-up truck while they were speaking with him. They asked him to exit the vehicle and they began to search his truck.
They say during the search they obtained the clear bag, a digital scale, two naloxone strips, and three more bags containing purple pills, blue pills, and a blue powdery substance.
The substance inside one of the clear bags tested positive for meth, weighing 51 grams. Deputies also say another clear bag contained an additional 10.2 grams of meth. The other bags contained oxycodone, morphine, and fentanyl, according to authorities.
Deputies also say the two Naloxone strips weighed a little over three grams. According to the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), Naloxone is a medication used to ‘rapidly reverse’ an opioid overdose.
The sheriff’s office says Swanton declined to speak with them regarding the narcotics they found. They say he also has six prior convictions for driving while his license was suspended or revoked.
HCSO says he was arrested and charged with trafficking methamphetamine, three counts for possession of a controlled substance, possession of new legend drug (buprenorphine and naloxone sublingual film), driving with a suspended/revoked license, and possession of paraphernalia.
He is being held on a $73,000 bond at the Hernando County Detention Center.
According to jail records, Swanton has been arrested multiple times in the last six years on drug possession charges. Swanton also has several other arrests dating back to 2010. Prior to Saturday, he was most recently arrested in January of 2022 on multiple drug charges. He was held without bond and eventually released on July 12 of this year.
