{"id":218531,"date":"2026-04-04T10:03:25","date_gmt":"2026-04-04T10:03:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/218531\/"},"modified":"2026-04-04T10:03:25","modified_gmt":"2026-04-04T10:03:25","slug":"tampa-man-charged-after-deputies-find-5-lbs-of-cocaine-in-u-haul","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/218531\/","title":{"rendered":"Tampa man charged after deputies find 5 lbs. of cocaine in U-Haul"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Video above: See the week\u2019s top headlines in Tampa Bay<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">TAMPA, Fla. (WFLA) \u2014 A Tampa man driving a U-Haul around the city in the middle of the night was charged after deputies discovered what he was really hauling: five pounds of cocaine.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Luis Pedroza, 34, was driving along Causeway Boulevard just after 3 a.m. on April 1, the Hillsborough County Sheriff\u2019s Office said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\"><a class=\"link  yahoo-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.yahoo.com\/news\/articles\/florida-man-arrested-randomly-murdering-124943174.html\" data-ylk=\"slk:Florida man arrested after randomly murdering woman walking dog: deputies;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas;outcm:mb_qualified_link;_E:mb_qualified_link;ct:story;\" data-yga=\"{&quot;yLinkElement&quot;:&quot;context_link&quot;,&quot;yModuleName&quot;:&quot;content-canvas&quot;,&quot;yLinkText&quot;:&quot;Florida man arrested after randomly murdering woman walking dog&quot;}\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"> Florida man arrested after randomly murdering woman walking dog: deputies <\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Deputies tried to pull him over after witnessing multiple traffic violations, but Pedroza kept driving for over a mile and resisted the officers\u2019 demands before eventually being taken into custody.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">HCSO said one of their newest K9 teams recognized the presence of narcotics in the truck and began a search.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\"><a class=\"link  yahoo-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.yahoo.com\/news\/articles\/florida-democratic-party-vice-chair-004125752.html\" data-ylk=\"slk:Husband charged after Florida Democratic Party vice chair found dead: police;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas;outcm:mb_qualified_link;_E:mb_qualified_link;ct:story;\" data-yga=\"{&quot;yLinkElement&quot;:&quot;context_link&quot;,&quot;yModuleName&quot;:&quot;content-canvas&quot;,&quot;yLinkText&quot;:&quot;Husband charged after Florida Democratic Party vice chair found dead&quot;}\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"> Husband charged after Florida Democratic Party vice chair found dead: police <\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">The deputies soon uncovered around 5.5 pounds of cocaine hidden in the U-Haul, HCSO said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Pedroza was arrested and has been charged with cocaine trafficking and resisting an officer without violence.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Copyright 2026 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.wfla.com\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WFLA.;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" data-yga=\"{&quot;yLinkElement&quot;:&quot;context_link&quot;,&quot;yModuleName&quot;:&quot;content-canvas&quot;,&quot;yLinkText&quot;:&quot;For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WFLA.&quot;}\" class=\"link \"> For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WFLA. <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Video above: See the week\u2019s top headlines in Tampa Bay TAMPA, Fla. (WFLA) \u2014 A Tampa man driving&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":218532,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[35437,1071,18311,99221,135,137,99222,136],"class_list":{"0":"post-218531","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tampa","8":"tag-cocaine-trafficking","9":"tag-deputies","10":"tag-hillsborough-county-sheriffs-office","11":"tag-luis-pedroza","12":"tag-tampa","13":"tag-tampa-headlines","14":"tag-tampa-man-driving","15":"tag-tampa-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/218531","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=218531"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/218531\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/218532"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=218531"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=218531"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=218531"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}