YAVAPAI COUNTY, AZ (AZFamily) — A central Arizona man has learned his punishment after he used a child in an attempt to hide drugs during a traffic stop.

The Yavapai County Sheriff’s Office (YCSO) said 57-year-old Vincent Benny Peraza was sentenced in superior court last month to 18 years in prison.

YCSO says that on July 13, 2021, a deputy tried to make a traffic stop on a vehicle near Cordes Junction. Peraza was a passenger in the back seat of the vehicle, next to a 7-year-old boy.

As Peraza and the child got out of the vehicle, deputies noticed the boy holding a backpack, YCSO said. A deputy asked the child if the backpack was his, to which the child replied that it wasn’t his and that Peraza had given it to him to hold.

A search of the backpack uncovered about 23,000 fentanyl pill

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