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More than $1 million worth of cocaine washed up on a beach in the Florida Keys after Hurricane Debby battered the Gulf Coast’s Big Bend Monday morning, officials said.
Debby, which made landfall as a Category 1 hurricane early in the morning, carried more than two dozen 70-pound packages of cocaine ashore as winds topped 80 miles per hour, US Border Patrol said.
“Hurricane Debby blew 25 packages of cocaine (70 lbs.) onto a beach in the Florida Keys,” US Border Patrol acting chief patrol Agent Samuel Briggs II said in a social media post.
Briggs shared photos of the taped-up bricks of cocaine which featured a glowing red triangular symbol on them.
He said the drugs have a street value that surpasses $1 million.
A beachgoer discovered the drugs — wrapped inside a trash bag — among seaweed, leaves and other debris that washed up on the beach, according to photos posted in reply to Briggs’ post.
The man contacted authorities about the washed-up stash and US Border Patrol seized the pricey packages.
Bricks of cocaine and other drugs frequently wash up on southern Florida beaches and surrounding waters as smugglers traffic the illegal substances from South America to the US.
In June, a beachgoer scouring a north Florida beach for sea turtle nests instead stumbled upon $4 million worth of cocaine bricks.
The discovery stunned law enforcement who said it’s rare for the drugs to make it to Nassau County, which is much farther north than where they usually wash up.
Meanwhile, Debby — which has since been downgraded to a tropical storm — is expected to bring punishing rain and flooding as it makes its way north from Florida to Georgia, North Carolina and South Carolina.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has declared a state of emergency in 61 counties across the state as more than 274,000 households have lost power.
At least four people have been killed in the storm, including a 13-year-old boy who was crushed to death when a tree collapsed onto his family’s home.
