Drug fugitive with neck tattoo told Tega Cay cops he was ‘undercover.’ He wasn’t.

A York County fugitive, out on bond on charges of drug trafficking and child neglect, was arrested late Monday, weeks after he claimed to police he was “working undercover,” Tega Cay officers said.

One of the reasons that police identified Lucas Matthew Nance, 25, of York, was the tattoos on his neck.

Nance was arrested by York County deputies Monday at a home on Swinging Tree Lane. Six weeks earlier, on July 4, he was found driving 70 mph in a 35 mph zone in Tega Cay, said Capt. James Patterson of the Tega Cay Police Department.

Nance is charged with failure to stop for a police blue light, reckless driving and driving without a license. He fled from Tega Cay officers after being pulled over July 4, Patterson said.

“The suspect was not working undercover in our jurisdiction,” Patterson said. “We would have known if any officer from anywhere was working undercover. This suspect is not a police officer. He was not undercover. He was speeding. Then he fled from the police.”

In the July 4 incident, Tega Cay officers chased Nance as he fled the traffic stop, but Nance escaped. Tega Cay officers have been searching for Nance since then, Patterson said.

The officer who had tried to arrest Nance on July 4 said that Nance’s visible tattoo “positively identified” the fleeing man who claimed to be undercover as Nance.

In that incident, police said drugs were “within reach” of two children in the car.

The York County deputies who found Nance Monday alerted Tega Cay police, who served arrest warrants for the July 4 incident, said Trent Faris, spokesman for the York County Sheriff’s office.

After Nance was arrested by Tega Cay officers, police also found that he was a fugitive from Rock Hill police for driving without a license, said Rock Hill police Capt. Mark Bollinger.

Nance, who has a 2015 conviction for felony drug possession, had been out on $32,000 bond for about three weeks at the time of the July 4 incident.

Nance was charged by Rock Hill police on June 6, when officers found 66 Oxycodone pills, meth and scales in a car.

Nance is being held without bond at the York County jail.

This story was originally published August 21, 2018 at 2:34 PM with the headline "Drug fugitive with neck tattoo told Tega Cay cops he was ‘undercover.’ He wasn’t.."