MOULTRIE, Ga. — It may have been Colquitt County’s first heroin bust, but it was made even more memorable when the suspect, who apparently shot up while a deputy was following his car, overdosed and had to be rushed to the hospital.

Coolidge resident Brent Richard Johnson spent time on life support systems at Colquitt Regional Medical Center on Sunday before he recovered and was discharged for the trip to jail, police said.

The deputy who made the traffic stop was dispatched at about 12:29 p.m. to the 1000 block of U.S. Highway 319 N. to investigate the report of a reckless driver. After locating the car the officer observed it swerve out of its lane two times, and then he turned on lights and siren.

“The deputy believed he did shoot up as he was getting pulled over,” said Sgt. Channing McDowell of the Colquitt County Sheriff’s Office. “They found a syringe in the vehicle and a syringe fell out when he got out of the vehicle.”

In addition, officers found a small plastic bag containing about $300 worth of suspected heroin.

Johnson was wanted on warrants for theft in Colquitt County, so the officer took him into custody. As officers examined the suspect’s car, one deputy noticed that Johnson was slumped over in the seat of a patrol car. When a deputy checked on him he was unresponsive but breathing, police said.

A deputy performed first aid on Johnson until paramedics arrived.

“He overdosed on heroin when he injected that last bit,” McDowell said.

Johnson was in the facility’s intensive care unit for some time, part of which was on life support, McDowell said.

The substance found “field tested positive for heroin,” he said. “I will send it to the (Georgia Bureau of Investigation) lab.  I don’t think we’ve ever had heroin before.”

Other long-term law enforcement officers also said they did not recall a previous arrest on heroin possession charges.

While law enforcement agencies believe there is a small amount of heroin being used, its cost is prohibitively high, said Lt. Steve Exum, who heads up Special Operations at the Moultrie Police Department.

Some people are attempting to get a similar high less expensively by crushing prescription pain pills and shooting those up with needles, he said.

Lowndes County sees sporadic activity, with maybe one or two arrests a month of people transporting heroin on Interstate 75, Exum said.

Moultrie, however, has had the dubious distinction of being a methamphetamine hub with two prosecutions of large-scale trafficking rings in the past few years.

Johnson, 29, 40 Wade Chastain Road, was charged with possession of heroin. He also was charged with five unrelated misdemeanor charges of theft by deception.

Colquitt County taxpayers likely will end up paying the costs of his hospital treatment, sheriff’s Capt. Julius Cox said.