{"id":218761,"date":"2026-04-04T15:34:30","date_gmt":"2026-04-04T15:34:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/218761\/"},"modified":"2026-04-04T15:34:30","modified_gmt":"2026-04-04T15:34:30","slug":"u-haul-driver-found-with-over-5-pounds-of-cocaine-during-traffic-stop-hcso","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/218761\/","title":{"rendered":"U-Haul driver found with over 5 pounds of cocaine during traffic stop: HCSO"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\" article <\/p>\n

Courtesy: Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office <\/p>\n

PALM RIVER-CLAIR MEL, Fla. – The Hillsborough County<\/a> Sheriff’s Office said it conducted a traffic stop on Wednesday, where they arrested Luis Pedroza for trafficking cocaine.<\/p>\n

5.5 Pounds of Cocaine Found Inside U-Haul <\/p>\n

HCSO said on April 1, around 3:00 a.m. deputies pulled over a U-Haul along Causeway Boulevard<\/a> after the driver allegedly committed multiple traffic violations.<\/p>\n

The driver, Luis Pedroza, 34, failed to stop for over a mile and resisted deputies\u2019 commands before being taken into custody.<\/p>\n

\"\" <\/p>\n

Courtesy: Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office <\/p>\n

A K-9 team at the scene was alerted to the presence of narcotics inside the U-Haul. A search of the vehicle revealed around 5.5 pounds of cocaine hidden inside, deputies said.<\/p>\n

Pedroza has been charged with the following:<\/p>\n

Trafficking cocaine (400 grams to 150 kilos)Resisting officer without violence <\/p>\n

Deputies said Pedroza has a prior criminal record, including federal weapons charges in Puerto Rico.<\/p>\n

What they’re saying:<\/p>\n

HCSO thanked its K-9 unit and handler, who just started this past week.<\/p>\n

The Source: This article was written using information from the Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office.<\/p>\n

Hillsborough County<\/a>Crime and Public Safety<\/a> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"article Courtesy: Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office PALM RIVER-CLAIR MEL, Fla. – The Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office said it…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":218762,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[630,47,629,115,135,137,136,628],"class_list":["post-218761","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tampa","tag-crime-publicsafety","tag-fl","tag-hillsborough","tag-news","tag-tampa","tag-tampa-headlines","tag-tampa-news","tag-us"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/218761","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=218761"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/218761\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/218762"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=218761"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=218761"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=218761"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}