Boaters find 56 pounds of barnacle-covered cocaine off Florida coast

Investigators believe the cocaine, which was covered in barnacles, had been in the water for "a while" before recent storms pushed it toward the shore.

Boaters found 56 pounds of cocaine floating off the coast of Florida, and authorities say the packages were encrusted with barnacles, indicating they had been in the Gulf of Mexico for quite some time.

The Collier County Sheriff's Office said the cocaine was found floating in mangroves off Panther Key near the Port of the Islands resort, southeast of Naples, on August 13. The package contained 25 individually wrapped kilograms of cocaine, worth an estimated $625,000.

“We appreciate the help of Good Samaritans in our community who saw something unusual and contacted law enforcement,” Sheriff Kevin Rambosk said in a statement.

Investigators believe the cocaine, which was covered in barnacles, had been in the water for "a while" before recent storms pushed it toward the shore.

The sheriff's office said detectives with its Vice and Narcotics Bureau are investigating the origins of the cocaine.

Several large bundles of packaged cocaine have been found washed up on beaches or floating just offshore Florida just this year, from as far south as the Florida Keys to as far north as Amelia Island, north of Jacksonville near the Georgia border.

Earlier this month, Debby 70 pounds of cocaine washed ashore in the Florida Keys as Tropical Storm Debby churned offshore, strengthening into a hurricane, authorities said.

The Monroe County Sheriff's Office said a good Samaritan reported finding several plastic-wrapped packages of suspected cocaine near a pier in Islamorada. The sheriff's office turned the drugs over to the U.S. Border Patrol who estimated their worth at more than $1 million dollars.

Reporting by TMX

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