Hurricane Debby washes over $1 million of cocaine onto a Florida beach
Debby caused the parts of the Florida Keys to be placed under a Tropical Storm Warning. The cyclone’s worst weather was located further north along the state’s Big Bend Region.
Bridges, waterways closed in Tampa as Debby slams Florida
Tampa Mayor Jane Castor joined FOX weather on Monday to explain how the city is dealing with the deadly impacts of Tropical Storm Debby after the then-hurricane made landfall to the north along the Big Bend early Monday morning.
KEY WEST, Fla. – A developing tropical cyclone in the Gulf of Mexico left behind a peculiar sight along a beach in the Florida Keys, with more than two dozen packages of cocaine washing ashore.
A representative for the U.S. Customs and Border Protection said that they were alerted to 25 packages of the drugs by a Good Samaritan on Sunday as Tropical Storm Debby passed west of the islands.
According to the agency, the drugs weighed about 70 pounds and have a street value of over a million dollars.
Photos released by Samuel Briggs II, the acting chief patrol agent for the Border Patrol’s Miami sector, showed the bricks with a red triangular logo, which could be a marking of a drug hauler or cartel from a foreign nation.
Briggs did not state where he believes the drugs originated or how long they had been in the ocean.
Debby was a tropical storm when it made its closest approach to the Keys and South Florida over the weekend.
The storm system formed south of Cuba on Saturday and gained strength as it moved into the warm waters of the Gulf of Mexico.
Due to the close proximity to the cyclone, parts of the Keys were put under a Tropical Storm Warning and were expecting a storm surge of 1-4 feet.
Only minor damage was reported on the islands as wind gusts reached 60 mph at a weather observation site at Alligator Reef.
Tracking Hurricane Debby. (FOX Weather)
HURRICANE NICOLE UNEARTHS HUMAN REMAINS ALONG FLORIDA’S TREASURE COAST
Tropical storms and hurricanes that impact the Sunshine State have a long history of unearthing artifacts and washing ashore peculiar items.
In 2022, Hurricane Nicole was credited with unearthing human remains at a historical Native American burial mound along Florida’s Treasure Coast.
And in 2019, Hurricane Dorian washed ashore many kilos of cocaine along the state’s east coast following its devastating strike on the Bahamas.
Although law enforcement took possession of the contraband, determining its point of origin is difficult because, in many cases, the items may have traveled hundreds of miles through rough waters.
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