Cocaine Catastrophe: Hurricane Debby Blows $1 Million Worth of Drugs Onto Florida Beach

Cocaine Chaos in the Aftermath of Hurricane Debby

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 region. 

The U.S. Bor­der Patrol report­ed that the pow­er­ful storm car­ried over two dozen 70-pound pack­ages of the illic­it drug ashore as winds exceed­ed 80 miles per hour.

Unexpected Discovery and Seizure

A beach­go­er dis­cov­ered the taped-up bricks of cocaine, which fea­tured a dis­tinc­tive red tri­an­gu­lar sym­bol, wrapped in a trash bag amid the sea­weed and debris left by the hurricane. 

The indi­vid­ual prompt­ly noti­fied author­i­ties, and the U.S. Bor­der Patrol seized the valu­able packages.

Lucrative Smuggling Routes and Frequent Discoveries

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 Unit­ed States. 

In June, a beach­go­er in north Flori­da stum­bled upon $4 mil­lion worth of cocaine bricks, a rare dis­cov­ery so far north.

The Ongoing Impact of Hurricane Debby

As for the hur­ri­cane itself, Deb­by has since been down­grad­ed to a trop­i­cal storm, but it con­tin­ues to bring pun­ish­ing rain and flood­ing as it makes its way north from Flori­da to Geor­gia, North Car­oli­na, and South Carolina. 

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.

Authorities Respond to the Situation

Flori­da Gov­er­nor Ron DeSan­tis has declared a state of emer­gency in 61 coun­ties across the state, and more than 274,000 house­holds have lost pow­er due to the storm. The U.S. Bor­der Patrol, which seized the cocaine, stat­ed that the drugs were like­ly blown ashore by Hur­ri­cane Deb­by’s pow­er­ful winds and waves.