Hurricane Debby brought more than strong winds and storm surges to Florida, as packages of cocaine valued at over a million dollars also made landfall, officials reported, marking the latest in a series of recent drug discoveries along Florida’s shores.
Hurricane Debby, which slammed into the state as a Category 1 hurricane but was later downgraded to a tropical storm, washed the drugs ashore in the Florida Keys, wrote Acting Chief of the United States (U.S.) Border Patrol, Agent Samuel Briggs II, on social media.
“Hurricane Debby blew 25 packages of cocaine onto a beach in the Florida Keys,” Briggs wrote, sharing photos of the packages.
The packages contained 32 kilograms of cocaine. Briggs added that the drug, with a street value of over a million dollars, was discovered by a passerby who contacted authorities.
Finds of cocaine along or near Florida’s coast are relatively common, as the state is not far from Caribbean drug trafficking hubs moving drugs from South America to the U.S. and Europe.
In June of this year, residents of the state found about 30 kilograms of cocaine floating in the ocean off the Florida Keys.
Earlier that month, divers found 25 kilograms of cocaine at about 30 meters depth near Key West.
The next day, the same amount of suspicious cocaine was found on the shore of Dauphin Island in Alabama.
In May, a beachgoer found about 1 million dollars worth of cocaine washed up along the Florida Keys.
During 2023, packages of cocaine worth over 100.000 dollars have surfaced on several beaches in Florida.
Last year, Tampa Mayor Jane Castor, while fishing with her family, pulled up about 35 kilograms of cocaine.
In 2019, bricks of cocaine were found on two beaches after Hurricane Dorian hit the Florida coast.
