During Hurricane Debby, over $1.6 million value of cocaine was discovered to have been deposited on Florida's shorelines, as reported by the authorities.
On August 4th, a whopping 25 bundles of cocaine were spotted on Islamorada's beach, a village located approximately 80 miles from Key West within the Florida Keys, as per a social media post from Miami's US Customs and Border Patrol team.
A kind-hearted individual brought this discovery to the authorities' attention after stumbling upon these packages, weighing around 70 lbs and filled with cocaine with an estimated street worth exceeding $1 million, as reported by the agency.
Samuel Briggs, acting boss of Miami sector's US Border Patrol, made a splash by sharing photos of the seized drugs on X, highlighting the bulk of the confiscated contraband.
A week later, the Collier County Sheriff's Office announced the discovery of another cocaine stash, worth over half a million dollars, floating near Everglades City within the Gulf of Mexico.
Collier County Sheriff Kevin Rambosk expressed gratitude to the brave boaters who spotted the narcotics adrift in mangroves off Panther Key, according to the office's Monday Facebook post.
The boaters discovered a 56-lb parcel of cocaine, wrapped in microwave oven-sized packaging, containing 25 individually sealed kilograms of cocaine, the sheriff's office confirmed. The drugs stood a worth of $625,000 as per authorities.
Rambosk praised the community's Good Samaritans in his post, relishing the helpfulness of those who notified the police upon spotting something unusual.
The sea-soaked packaging's barnacles suggested the package had spent an extended time in the water, as per authorities.
The unusual find evoked nostalgia of Collier County's "square grouper" marijuana smuggling days of the 1970s and 1980s while being relatively uncommon in today's context, as hinted in the post.
The term "square grouper" refers to large plastic-wrapped marijuana bundles that resembled square fish, as deciphered by Brian Townsend, a former DEA supervisory special agent.
Collier County Sheriff's Office investigators and vice & narcotics bureau are working to trace the drugs' origin, as stated by authorities.
Detectives believed the cocaine likely arrived with the tide from the east coast due to recent storms, the post showed.
Large drug packages ranging from marijuana to hashish to cocaine have surfaced in the waters off Miami and the Florida Keys, as authorities noted.
Smugglers often employ boats, submarines, and other watercraft to ferry drugs into the US by sea and may discard the drugs into the ocean to evade capture when confronted with troubles like mechanical issues, rough weather, or law enforcement interventions, according to Townsend.
During one of his DEA assignments, Townsend witnessed drugs washing ashore along the South Texas shoreline along the Gulf Coast.
Smugglers sometimes intentionally discard bales of drugs sealed in plastic or waterproof containers into the sea at predesignated locations for later pickup by other smugglers, Townsend disclosed.
Upon entering the sea, ocean currents and tides, particularly during storms like Debby, can transport the drugs to distant seashores beyond their initial drop-offs, he said.
In June, authorities in Alabama reported a 55-lb haul of cocaine valued at $450,000 that washed up on Dauphin Island in Mobile County, as reported by The Associated Press.
Weeks later, an individual on Amelia Island's northeastern Florida beach stumbled upon a 70-lb stash of cocaine valued around $4 million, according to CNN affiliate WJXT.
After making a significant seizure, Samuel Briggs encouraged everyone to stay vigilant, reminding us all that 'us' as a community need to report any unusual findings to ensure the safety of our neighborhoods.
In Collier County, the boaters who spotted the cocaine acknowledged that their actions were a testament to the importance of 'us' working together to combat drug trafficking.
