Drug smugglers passing by the Florida Keys in recent days lost a good chunk of their shipments judging by what recreational boaters found in the water over the July 4 holiday weekend.
On Sunday, boaters found 87 pounds of hashish in the ocean south of the Middle Keys city of Marathon, said Adam Hoffner, division chief for U.S. Customs and Border Protection’s Miami sector.
The same day, in roughly the same area, another boater found a load containing about 62 pounds of cocaine, Hoffner said.
In each discovery, the boaters called the Monroe County Sheriff’s Office to report the drugs, Hoffner said. The sheriff’s office then turned over the contraband to the U.S. Border Patrol.
Walter Slosar, chief patrol agent for the Border Patrol’s Miami sector, said in a statement released on Twitter that the estimated combined street value of the cocaine and hashish is about $1.4 million.
These weren’t the only large finds of drugs in Florida Keys waters over the weekend, according to authorities.
On Saturday, a boater called the sheriff’s office after coming to shore with a large amount of marijuana found about 13 miles northwest of Big Pine Key, the agency said.
Deputies met the boater at Big Pine Key Resort and took possession of the bale, which weighed 7 to 8 pounds, the sheriff’s office said in a Facebook post.
Like the hashish and cocaine, the drugs were turned over to the Border Patrol, according to the sheriff’s office.
