Boaters have discovered $1m worth of cocaine off the coast of the Florida Keys, authorities announced.
In a Facebook post on Sunday, the Monroe county sheriff’s department announced that recreational boaters discovered a package containing approximately 21kg (61lbs) of packaged cocaine around seven miles (11km) off Islamorada, a village of islands in the Florida Keys.
Pictures and videos posted online showed the packages of cocaine wrapped in clear plastic and featuring flying bald eagles.
Samuel Briggs II, the US border patrol acting chief of the Miami sector, said that the cocaine will be seized by border patrol agents. “We appreciate the support from Good Samaritan’s [sic] in our community,” Briggs II wrote.
Recreational boater in the Florida Keys discovers 65 lbs. of cocaine floating at sea. The cocaine has an estimated street value of over $1 million & will be seized by the U.S. #BorderPatrol. We appreciate the support from Good Samaritan’s in our community.#floridakeys #drugs pic.twitter.com/g2hQYhLATG
— Samuel Briggs II (@USBPChiefMIP) June 18, 2024
Earlier this month, divers in Key West, Florida, discovered more than a dozen packages of suspected cocaine in the Atlantic Ocean. The packages, which were marked with a blue “Nike SB” label and the Nike swoosh logo, were found approximately 100ft underwater.
This month, authorities also seized and offloaded nearly 2,180kg of cocaine worth more than $63m at Port Everglades in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. The drugs were found during two interdictions 24 miles north of Puerto Cabello, Venezuela, the US coast guard said.
In May, beachgoers in the Florida Keys discovered a suspicious package along the beach which turned out to contain approximately 30kg of cocaine worth around $1m.
In January, the US coast guard seized over a ton of cocaine worth $32m from international waters of the Caribbean Sea during two separate cases. Six suspected smugglers were arrested following the seizures, the US coast guard said.
Due to Florida’s proximity to South America and its status as a high-intensity drug trafficking area, so much cocaine has been found in waters near the state that experts say that “cocaine sharks” may be consuming the drugs underwater.
