Storm tides wash in barnacle-covered illegal package containing small fortune, Florida deputies say
The package, which had been in the water for a while, contained 56 pounds of 25 individually wrapped kilograms of cocaine. The drugs had an estimated street value of $625,000, deputies said.
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PORT OF THE ISLANDS, Fla. – More than half a million dollars worth of cocaine washed ashore Monday along Florida's coastline, most likely carried in by the tides from the East Coast due to recent storms, authorities said.
The Collier County Sheriff's Office is investigating after a barnacle-covered package, approximately the size of a microwave oven, was discovered floating in mangroves near Panther Key by the Port of the Islands along the Gulf of Mexico, not far from Everglades City.
The package, which had been in the water for a while, contained 56 pounds of 25 individually wrapped kilograms of cocaine. The drugs had an estimated street value of $625,000, deputies said.
HURRICANE DEBBY WASHES OVER $1 MILLION OF COCAINE ONTO A FLORIDA BEACH
More than half a million dollars worth of cocaine washed ashore along Florida's coastline, most likely carried in by the tides from the East Coast due to recent storms, authorities say.
(Collier County Sheriff's Office)
"We appreciate the help of Good Samaritans in our community who saw something unusual and contacted law enforcement," Sheriff Kevin Rambosk said.
The department's Vice and Narcotics Bureau is working to determine the cocaine’s origin.
Large packages of drugs ranging from marijuana to hashish to cocaine have been found in the past floating in the waters off Miami and the Florida Keys.
Last week, 70 pounds of cocaine, with a street value of more than $1 million, washed ashore in the Florida Keys due to Hurricane Debby.
Rambosk said the latest find was reminiscent of the "square grouper" marijuana smuggling days in Collier County during the 1970s and 1980s but is now uncommon.