MOULTRIE, Ga. — Three Moultrie residents were charged Jan. 8 following a police chase in which the driver is accused of throwing baggies of marijuana out the window.

Moultrie Police Department-Colquitt County Sheriff’s Office Drug Enforcement Team Commander Keith Newman along with Investigators Channing McDowell and Justin Searcy were patrolling on Second Avenue Southwest when they noticed a vehicle sitting idly in the front yard of the 1400 block.

“We turned left on 11th Street Southwest and parked to wait on a white SUV which we had seen in the yard and we believed to have belonged to someone we have had dealings with in the past,” McDowell said in an interview Monday. 

Jeffery Tyler Pifer, 24, 306 21st Ave. N.E., was identified by McDowell as the driver of the white SUV. Pifer has been charged previously on drug distribution and gun charges, according to an accompanying Sheriff’s Office incident report, which was written and provided by McDowell. 

Pifer left the residence and failed to stop at a stop sign at the intersection of Second Avenue Southwest and 11th Street Southwest, McDowell said. The three DET agents attempted to stop Pifer using their emergency lights. Pifer then “accelerated in speed before turning off of 11th Street Southwest onto Fifth Avenue Southwest,” McDowell said.

“As Pifer made the turn, he threw what we believed was a couple baggies of marijuana out of his driver’s window. He finally came to a stop within the 1400 block of Fifth Avenue Southwest, McDowell stated.

Pifer was arrested without incident. While he was detained in the CCSO patrol unit, a Georgia state trooper was called to the scene to give Pifer a field sobriety test, which Pifer refused. 

McDowell said he walked along Fifth Avenue and found a baggie he believes Pifer threw from the car.

The investigators along with other members of the DET went to the house where they originally had seen Pifer’s vehicle. McDowell’s report said they could smell a strong odor of marijuana “coming from the residence as we walked to the door under the carport of the residence.”

“We knocked on the door a few times to announce ourselves,” McDowell said. “Both the guys in the house were detained as we were waiting to get a search warrant. After receiving that, we continued to search the house.”

Within the house, McDowell said, was more marijuana; THC dab cartridges, which are a liquid form of smokable marijuana; three shotguns, two rifles and a handgun. 

Both occupants within the house — Sebastian Caleb Bertsch, 25, 1009 Second Ave. S.W., and Collin Warren Boyd, 27, 1009 Second Ave. S.W. —were charged in connection with the drugs in their home. Both were taken to Colquitt County Jail without incident.

Both were charged with possession of a schedule I controlled substance. Boyd received a tampering with evidence charge after investigators found evidence of him attempting to flush marijuana down his toilet, according to McDowell. Bertsch received a possession of a firearm or knife during commission of or attempt to commit certain crimes as the guns were found in his bedroom. 

Pifer was charged with fleeing or attempting to elude a police officer, D.U.I. (refusal), unsafe operation of radio or telephone, tampering with evidence and possession of marijuana.