Drugs keep washing ashore. Now 63 pounds of cocaine worth $1.5M found at a Keys park
More than $1.4 million worth of cocaine washed up on the shore of a state park in the Lower Keys, according to the U.S. Border Patrol.
On Tuesday, an employee working at Bahia Honda State Park, between mile markers 36 and 37, discovered 23 bricks of cocaine and reported it to the Monroe County Sheriff’s Office, said Adam Hoffner, spokesman for the Border Patrol. The drugs, which Border Patrol agents picked up, weighed 63 pounds.
The find comes a week after Border Patrol agents seized more than 10 pounds of cocaine and 15 pounds of marijuana that people found in the Keys.
The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration says the waters off the Florida coast remain a busy route for drug smuggling, and just because more drugs seem to be washing up in the Keys lately, that doesn’t necessarily point to an increase in smuggling.
However, Special Agent Anne-Judith Lambert, DEA spokeswoman, did note that the price of cocaine has come down significantly since the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. She did not say if that was related to the cluster of wash-ups.
“Drug wash-ups are very common along Florida’s coast in both the Atlantic and Gulf of Mexico. Most occur in the Atlantic side. The location where they wash ashore should not be assumed to be the destination as sea currents do play a role on where these bales are ultimately found,” Lambert said. “A bale of cocaine could have drifted a while before washing up ashore.”
The wholesale price for a kilogram of cocaine now fluctuates between $29,000 and $34,000, Lambert said, which is around the same price people paid pre-pandemic. On the street, “kilos can still command $35,000 to $37,000, Lambert said.
During the pandemic, however, the wholesale price range rose to between $44,000 and $50,000 a kilo, she said.
This story was originally published May 26, 2021 at 12:30 PM.
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