North Carolina fugitive captured after 9-hour manhunt in Flagler County

A North Carolina fugitive was arrested in Palm Coast Tuesday morning after fleeing from deputies and prompting a nine-hour manhunt, according to the Flagler County Sheriff’s Office.

Deputies said 22-year-old Taylor West, a man from Manteo, North Carolina, was wanted in his home state for violating his probation on drug trafficking charges, including opium and heroin trafficking, resisting arrest, and giving a false name to law enforcement. West was also wanted in Virginia for violation of probation on charges of fentanyl possession and controlled drug paraphernalia, deputies said.

According to the sheriff’s office, deputies were pulling over a car just before midnight Monday evening near Seminole Woods Boulevard and Squash Blossom Trail, in which West was a passenger. During the stop, West took off on foot into the woods near the Integra Woods Apartments, deputies said.

The incident kicked off the nine-hour manhunt for West, whom law enforcement eventually caught at about 9 a.m., deputies said.

Deputies said that West was spotted several times during the hunt both in the woods and the nearby Integra Woods apartment complex, though he was able to evade deputies due to the thick vegetation in the area.

“I’m proud of how our deputies handled the search,” Flagler Sheriff Rick Staly said. “It can get difficult and dangerous to go into heavily wooded areas or into an apartment complex at night to capture one person, but catching this poison peddler was worth the time and effort.”

West is held on no bond at the Sheriff Perry Hall Inmate Detention Facility based on the North Carolina warrant and is expected to be extradited back to his home state, Staly said.