Hillsborough County deputies say a midweek raid on an Apollo Beach home ended with 25-year-old Abraham Ruelas in cuffs and a stash of drugs and a firearm off the street. The Wednesday search warrant resulted in Ruelas being booked on a slate of felony charges.
Ruelas, whom deputies identify as a documented Latin Kings gang member and a three-time convicted felon, faces charges that include felon in possession of a firearm and ammunition; trafficking in cocaine (28 to 200 grams) and trafficking in hydrocodone (300 grams to 30 kilograms); possession of a controlled substance with intent to sell or deliver; possession of cannabis sativa resin; keeping a public nuisance structure for drug activity; and possession of drug paraphernalia, according to FOX 13 Tampa Bay. That report states HCSO’s Gang Unit served the warrant and that detectives recovered cocaine, marijuana, promethazine with codeine, psilocybin, a firearm, and ammunition during the search.
HCSO Gang Unit Ramps Up Targeted Raids
Ruelas’s arrest lines up with a series of recent drug and gang enforcement pushes the sheriff’s office has been touting. Past HCSO press releases describe similar search warrants and undercover investigations that resulted in multiple arrests and sizeable seizures. Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office materials show the agency leaning on its Gang Unit and Major Violators detectives in an effort to disrupt local trafficking networks.
What The Charges Can Mean
Under Florida law, trafficking penalties depend heavily on the drug involved and how much of it is seized. For instance, trafficking 28 to 200 grams of cocaine carries a mandatory minimum of three years in prison and a $50,000 fine, while larger quantities trigger tougher mandatory terms and higher fines. Penalties for opioids such as hydrocodone climb quickly as the weight increases, with the full scale of mandatory minimums spelled out in state law under Florida Statutes, section 893.135…