The discovery evoked memories of the "square grouper" days in Collier County during the 1970s and 1980s
Hurricane Debby not only caused deadly destruction across the Southeast last week but also left behind over 100 pounds of narcotics along Florida's shores, according to authorities, reported CNN. On August 4, 25 packages of cocaine were discovered on a beach in Islamorada, a village in the Florida Keys located about 80 miles from Key West, as reported by the US Customs and Border Patrol in Miami.
A good Samaritan notified authorities after stumbling upon the packages, which weighed approximately 70 pounds and contained cocaine with an estimated street value exceeding $1 million, the agency stated.
Samuel Briggs, the acting chief patrol agent for the US Border Patrol's Miami sector, posted a photo on X showcasing a significant haul of seized drugs.
The following Monday, the Collier County Sheriff's Office announced that another substantial quantity of cocaine, valued at over half a million dollars, had been discovered floating near Everglades City in the Gulf of Mexico.
Sheriff Kevin Rambosk praised the good Samaritan boaters who reported the drugs they found floating among the mangroves off Panther Key, according to a Facebook post by the agency.
The boaters discovered a package, later identified as containing 56 pounds of cocaine, roughly the size of a microwave oven. This package held 25 individually wrapped kilograms of cocaine, with an estimated street value of $625,000, according to the Collier County Sheriff's Office.
Sheriff Kevin Rambosk expressed gratitude for the Good Samaritans who noticed something unusual and alerted law enforcement, as mentioned in a Facebook post.
Authorities noted that the barnacles on the package indicated it had been floating in the water for some time.
The discovery evoked memories of the "square grouper" days in Collier County during the 1970s and 1980s, although such finds are rare today, according to the Facebook post.
The term "square grouper" refers to bales of marijuana wrapped in plastic that resembled square fish, explained Brian Townsend, a retired supervisory special agent with the Drug Enforcement Administration, to CNN. He added that during the 1970s and 1980s, drug smugglers frequently used this method to transport marijuana from the Caribbean and South America to Florida and other coastal regions.
He says he frequently witnessed drugs washing up along the South Texas shoreline along the Gulf Coast during one of his past DEA assignments.
"Some smugglers intentionally drop bales of drugs wrapped in plastic or watertight containers into the sea at predetermined locations for later retrieval by other smugglers," Townsend said.
Once in the water, ocean currents and tides - especially during storms such as Debby - can carry the drugs to shore far away from their original drop points, he said.
He recalls frequently seeing drugs wash up along the South Texas shoreline on the Gulf Coast during a previous DEA assignment.