WMBFNews.com, Myrtle Beach/Florence SC, Weather3 arrested by DEU after undercover operation, chase

GARDEN CITY, SC (WMBF) Three people have been arrested for trafficking cocaine after an undercover drug operation in the Garden City area Tuesday.

Deputy Commander Dean Bishop with the 15th Circuit Drug Enforcement Unit said agents with the DEU were conducting an undercover operation near the Garden City Connector and Highway 17 Bypass area Tuesday afternoon.

Two suspects in a vehicle fled the scene and agents gave chase to the Dogwood Drive area. According to Bishop, the driver and a suspect were apprehended when residents told agents which direction one suspect ran on foot.

Susan Moyar, of Garden City, said the suspect's car barrelled through her yard and parked inbetween tall decorative grass planted inbetween her property and her neighbor's home.

"All of a sudden there were all these cops and they had their guns [out]," she recalled. "I was like, 'What was going on at my house?'"

An additional suspect was also arrested and a search was conducted on a home along Peachtree Lane in the Garden City area. Agents recovered 56 grams of a substance believed to be cocaine and less than 28 grams of marijuana.

Rebecca Lynn Blackwell, 39, of Surfside Beach, Ernest Arthur Bryant III, 25, of Pawleys Island and Lavard Deon Lind-Baez, 25, of Pawleys Island are now facing a charge of trafficking in cocaine 10 grams or more.

Bryant and Lind-Baez are also facing a charge of possession of 28 grams or less of marijuana or 10 grams or less of hashish.

Agents did not specify which suspects fled in the vehicle.

"There are a lot of elderly people that live down in this area," Moyar said. "If they wouldn't ahve caught him, he could have hidden in one of those houses. [He] could've hurt somebody."

All three were transported to the J. Reuben Long Detention Center and are awaiting bond hearings at this time.

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