- December 16, 2025
A traffic stop on I-95 Tuesday evening resulted in a Miami man being charged with trafficking in cocaine after Flagler County Sheriff’s deputies found cocaine in the vehicle’s trunk hidden in a vacuum sealed bag covered with dryer sheets.
Edward Payne, 34, was being held in the Flagler County Inmate Facility Thursday on bond on the felony charge.
Payne was stopped around 5:30 p.m. on I-95 near the State Road 100 intersection after deputies observed him swerving in and out of traffic at a high rate of speed. Deputies said the man was driving between 95 and 100 miles per hour.
After being stopped, Payne apologized for speeding and said he was on his way to Jacksonville to visit his hospitalized grandmother. He denied a deputy’s request for consent to search the vehicle. A K-9 unit was called in and indicated the presence of drugs in the trunk area.
Deputies discovered the bag of cocaine inside a plastic shopping bag in the trunk and estimated the street value at $33,00.
Payne was placed under arrest and his rental car was towed. Deputies found a copy of a speeding citation inside the vehicle that was issued to Payne from the Florida Highway Patrol just two hours earlier on Tuesday.
“This is a significant amount of cocaine. Any time you can seize this amount of cocaine and take it off the street, you have done a service for the community,” said Flagler County Sheriff Donald W. Fleming.
