A Palm Coast fentanyl trafficker will spend 19 years in state prison after pleading no contest to drug and communication charges, the Flagler County Sheriff’s Office said.
Thirty-eight-year-old Ryan McArthur of Palm Coast entered the plea October 28 to trafficking in fentanyl and unlawful use of a two-way communication device. Circuit Judge Dawn Nichols found him guilty and imposed the sentence.
Sheriff’s Office Special Investigations Unit detectives arrested McArthur twice in 2025. The agency did not release details of either case in its update.
The mandatory trafficking fine was waived as part of McArthur’s plea agreement.
McArthur remains at the Sheriff Perry Hall Inmate Detention Facility. He is waiting to transfer to the custody of the Florida Department of Corrections.
Sheriff Rick Staly praised the investigators and the prosecutors who handled the case.
“This fentanyl trafficker won’t see the outside of a prison cell for a long time, which means he won’t be able to traffic his dangerous and deadly poison in our community,” Staly said. “I want to thank our Special Investigations Unit for getting this poison peddler and his drugs off the streets, the State Attorney’s Office, and the judge for putting him behind bars.”
The case ended with the plea, so it did not go to trial. The Sheriff’s Office announced the sentence Friday as an update to its earlier arrests of the Palm Coast man.