{"id":174799,"date":"2026-03-02T10:36:29","date_gmt":"2026-03-02T10:36:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/174799\/"},"modified":"2026-03-02T10:36:29","modified_gmt":"2026-03-02T10:36:29","slug":"former-red-sox-minor-leaguer-accused-of-trafficking-large-quantities-of-cocaine-in-south-florida","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/174799\/","title":{"rendered":"Former Red Sox minor leaguer accused of trafficking \u2018large quantities of cocaine\u2019 in South Florida"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"text text--small text--normal text--primary\">Published:\u00a0February 25, 2026 at 4:49 PM<\/p>\n<p>lead-art-block.fullscreen-enterExpand<img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" data-chromatic=\"ignore\" alt=\"\" class=\"c-image\" loading=\"eager\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/P5PXQEMEUNFMDDVBMCDYX3QMNE.jpg\"  width=\"720\" height=\"405\"\/>Photo Yusniel Padron Artiles <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">HIALEAH, Fla. \u2014 A former minor league pitcher in the Boston Red Sox organization is facing serious felony charges after sheriff\u2019s deputies accused him of trafficking \u201clarge quantities of cocaine throughout Miami-Dade County.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.local10.com\/espanol\/2026\/02\/25\/acusan-a-exjugador-de-ligas-menores-de-los-red-sox-de-traficar-grandes-cantidades-de-cocaina-en-el-sur-de-florida\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.local10.com\/espanol\/2026\/02\/25\/acusan-a-exjugador-de-ligas-menores-de-los-red-sox-de-traficar-grandes-cantidades-de-cocaina-en-el-sur-de-florida\/\">Leer en espa\u00f1ol<\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">Arrest documents obtained by Local 10 News on Wednesday state that Yusniel Padron Artiles, 28, was arrested at his home on West 53rd Terrace in Hialeah last Thursday.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">Padron Artiles, a Havana-born Cuban national, was drafted in the 22nd round by the Red Sox in 2018 <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mdcathletics.com\/sports\/bsb\/2017-18\/bios\/padron-artiles_yusniel_5rt1\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.mdcathletics.com\/sports\/bsb\/2017-18\/bios\/padron-artiles_yusniel_5rt1\">out of Miami Dade College<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/register\/player.fcgi?id=padron001yus\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/register\/player.fcgi?id=padron001yus\">reached the Double-A level<\/a> before his <a href=\"https:\/\/www.milb.com\/player\/yusniel-padron-artiles-681548\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.milb.com\/player\/yusniel-padron-artiles-681548\">release in 2024<\/a>. He pitched for an independent league team in Quebec City that year and hasn\u2019t played professionally since.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">According to an arrest report from the Miami-Dade Sheriff\u2019s Office, an informant tipped deputies off to Padron Artiles in January. That informant conducted four controlled drug buys from the former athlete, it states.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">Authorities executed a search warrant at Padron Artiles\u2019 home and took him into custody early Thursday morning.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">Deputies said they found nearly 50 baggies of powder cocaine in his bedroom, along with two guns and about $1,200 cash between his bedroom and living room.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">As of Wednesday afternoon, Padron Artiles was being held without bond in the Metrowest Detention Center, facing charges of armed drug trafficking and ownership, lease, rental, or possession for trafficking in or manufacturing a controlled substance.<\/p>\n<p>\ud83c\udfe0 News From Your Neighborhood<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph b-article-body__copyright\">Copyright 2026 by WPLG Local10.com &#8211; All rights reserved.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" data-chromatic=\"ignore\" alt=\"Chris Gothner\" class=\"c-image\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/https:\/\/author-service-images-sandbox-us-east-1.publishing.aws.arc.pub\/wplginc\/3be3b5ed-fb4b-43ce-8b.jpeg\"  width=\"100\" height=\"100\"\/>Chris Gothner <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph b-author-bio__author-description\">Chris Gothner joined the Local 10 News team in 2022 as a Digital Journalist.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Published:\u00a0February 25, 2026 at 4:49 PM lead-art-block.fullscreen-enterExpandPhoto Yusniel Padron Artiles HIALEAH, Fla. \u2014 A former minor league pitcher&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":174800,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[225,227,226],"class_list":["post-174799","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-hialeah","tag-hialeah","tag-hialeah-headlines","tag-hialeah-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/174799","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=174799"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/174799\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/174800"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=174799"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=174799"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=174799"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}