A Bremen man was jailed by Rockmart Police after he was stopped, and an officer noticed that he was trying to swallow drugs while being detained, according to reports.

Rodney Tyrone Stallings, 58, of a Bremen address, was stopped on Goodyear Avenue in Rockmart on Tuesday afternoon, April 30 by an officer on patrol on North Piedmont Avenue and found there wasn’t a tag on the back of a 2005 Chevrolet Silverado, and pulled the pickup over.

Stallings was believed to be impaired after officers noticed and smelled empty beer cans in the bed of the pickup and found the driver with bloodshot eyes, the report alleged.

He was asked to come out of the truck due to the belief he was impaired, and Stallings initially refused to cooperate with officers wishing to search him or his vehicle, or take part in any field sobriety tests.

Then the arresting officer noticed that Stallings was chewing on something, and they sought to keep him from swallowing by holding his jaw. He was able to get rid of marijuana, per Stallings’ alleged admission in the report but he was unable to swallow a baggie of cocaine, but police ultimately got him to spit it out before he could do any further potential damage to himself via poisoning from the drugs.

A field test later indicated it was cocaine, and it was sent onward to the GBI for further testing.

Stallings was checked out by AdventHealth Redmond EMS personnel before he was carried onward to the the Polk County Jail.

He was booked into custody on April 30 on felony charges of possession of cocaine and tampering with evidence, along with misdemeanor charges of three counts of obstruction of law enforcement officers and obscuring tag frame or tinted tag covers prohibited.

Stallings remained in jail on a $20,000 bond.