BOCA RATON, FL (BocaNewsNow.com) (Copyright © 2026 MetroDesk Media, LLC) — A Boca Raton personal chef with no valid driver’s license was clocked at 102 mph on Forest Hill Boulevard early Friday, according to the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office. Deputies say they later found 129 doses of generic Suboxone in a cooler in his car. Rafael Pedro Soto Ross, 30, is charged with DUI, reckless driving, driving 50 mph or more over the speed limit, driving on a revoked license and a felony count of possession with intent to sell a Schedule III controlled substance.
It started around 12:51 a.m. A deputy says radar caught a black 2017 Kia heading east on Forest Hill from Davis Road at 84 mph in a 45 mph zone. The car blew through a red light at South Congress Avenue and kept accelerating, topping out at 102 mph where the limit drops to 35. Once on southbound Interstate 95, it slowed to about 40 mph and pulled onto the shoulder. Soto Ross told the deputy he never saw the patrol car behind him and asked what he’d done wrong.
The deputy reported a strong odor of alcohol, bloodshot, glassy eyes and a driver with no shoes on. Soto Ross had a Florida ID card instead of a license. Records show his license was canceled in 2024, and he has a prior violation for driving while suspended or revoked. He said the Kia belonged to his mother and that he was headed home to Boca Raton after dropping off a friend who works as a chef near Southern Boulevard. According to the report, he struggled through roadside sobriety exercises, ending the one-leg stand at 20 seconds because his leg was getting tired. At the breath testing facility, he refused twice, then changed his mind, telling deputies he figured he could pass rather than face an additional charge. Both samples came back at 0.146, nearly double Florida’s 0.08 legal limit. He told testers he’d had three or four Bud Light beers and marijuana around 8 p.m.
Inside the car, deputies say they found about 7.58 grams of marijuana and a red cooler behind the passenger seat holding five boxes of buprenorphine and naloxone sublingual films, the generic form of Suboxone, with the prescription labels torn off. Soto Ross denied knowing anything about the drugs and suggested they belonged to a friend of his mother’s who had driven with her from New Jersey. But he also said his mother had been back in Florida for two days, and the deputy noted the boxes were still cool to the touch, something no cooler could manage after two days in a car in the Florida sun. Citing the packaging and the missing labels, the deputy added the intent-to-sell charge. Soto Ross was booked into the Palm Beach County Jail and later released on $5,000 bond. A court date is pending.
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