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Cocaine production stems mainly from South America

When many think of Florida, some of the first things to come to mind are its great weather, strong economy, and masses of retirees.

But what might not be your first thought is the copious amounts of drugs washing up on the state’s beaches.

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On Monday, around $1 million worth of cocaine — 25 packages at roughly 70 pounds each — was discovered at a beach in the Florida Keys after Hurricane Debby swept through the region.

Earlier this summer, boaters found another 65 pounds of cocaine floating in the ocean near the Florida Keys, and divers came across 25 kilograms of cocaine roughly 100 feet underwater off Key West.

And that’s far from the end of it. Around 67 pounds of cocaine was seized after washing up on a beach in Volusia County back in October.

Even drugs like marijuana have washed ashore in vast volumes at places like Neptune Beach and Palm Beach.

WHERE IS IT ALL COMING FROM?

According to researchers with the United Nations, approximately 90% of cocaine consumed in North America was produced in South America.

Drug traffickers then try to smuggle the illicit substances over the water via boats or small aircraft, often over the Caribbean Sea or Atlantic Ocean.

However, traffickers will dump their hauls into the water below for fellow smugglers to pick up or to evade detection by law enforcement.

HOW DOES IT GET TO FLORIDA?

According to Scientific American, loose packages of cocaine dropped in the water may be carried by ocean currents or strong storms, which causes them to wash up on the shore.

And with Debby having just passed through, it’s no surprise that so much was discovered on Monday in the Florida Keys.

“You always hear about tropical systems unearthing shipwrecks and things like that, so if there’s something in the water — the storm can transport that, too!” News 6 Meteorologist Jonathan Kegges said.

“COCAINE SHARKS”

Aside from the obvious issues of drug trafficking, researchers have also voiced concern that these sorts of activities could be affecting local wildlife — sharks in particular.

Last year, researchers investigated the potential effects that cocaine in the water had on sharks in Florida’s waters, Live Science reports.

During the investigation, researchers dropped fake bales of cocaine into the water to see whether sharks would react. And react they did, as several sharks took nibbles from the packages or swam off with them entirely.

In addition, the researchers used a bait ball made of fish powder to cause a dopamine rush in sharks similar to that of a hit of cocaine. As a result, the sharks went wild, according to Live Science.

However, more research is still needed to determine whether this is happening en masse with the packages dropped by smugglers.

“We have no idea what (cocaine) could do to the shark,” researcher Tom “The Blowfish” Hird told Live Science. “So we can’t even say, ‘Well, this is a baseline’ and go from here.”

WHAT SHOULD I DO IF I FIND COCAINE ON THE BEACH?

“Finders keepers” doesn’t apply here.

First of all, many packages are marked with certain symbols or insignias to denote what group they came from, which can help indicate whether what you’re looking at is actually an illicit substance.

But holding onto it is a bad idea, according to Florida law firm Perlet & Shiner.

“It should go without saying that retaining possession of (a washed-up block of drugs) is an incredibly bad idea...” the law firm states. “If, for example, you intentionally retain possession of a block of drugs later valued at $100,000, you have committed grand theft in the first degree, which can carry up to 30 years in prison, plus significant fines.”

If you stumble across bricks of cocaine on the beach, you should instead immediately alert your local law enforcement agency and keep an eye on the packages.

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Hurricane Debby brought more than powerful winds and storm surge to Florida — packages of cocaine worth more than $1 million also made landfall, officials said, marking the latest in a string of recent discoveries of drugs along Florida shores.

Debby, which slammed into the state as a Category 1 hurricane but has since been downgraded to a tropical storm, washed the drugs ashore in the Florida Keys, U.S. Border Patrol acting chief patrol Agent Samuel Briggs II wrote on social media.

"Hurricane Debby blew 25 packages of cocaine (70 lbs.) onto a beach in the Florida Keys," Briggs wrote, posting two images of the packages.

Briggs said the trove of drugs, which has a street value of more than $1 million, was found by a good Samaritan who contacted the authorities.

Cocaine has been found on numerous occasions on and near the shores of Florida, which is not far from Caribbean transit hubs for drugs being trafficked from South America to the U.S. and Europe.

In June, recreational boaters off the coast of the Florida Keys found 65 pounds of cocaine floating in the ocean, Briggs said.

Earlier that month, divers found 25 kilograms of cocaine about 100 feet underwater off Key West. The very next day, the same amount of suspected cocaine was found washed up on Dauphin Island, Alabama.

In May, a beachgoer found about $1 million worth of cocaine washed up along the Florida Keys, CBS News Miami reported.

In 2023, packages of cocaine worth more than $100,000 washed up on several Florida beaches. Also last year, Tampa Mayor Jane Castor, while on a fishing trip with her family, reeled in 70 pounds of cocaine.

In 2019, bricks of cocaine were discovered on two beaches after Hurricane Dorian lashed the Florida coast.

Stephen Smith

Stephen Smith is a managing editor for CBSNews.com based in New York. A Washington, D.C. native, Steve was previously an editorial producer for the Washington Post, and has also worked in Los Angeles, Boston and Tokyo.

Bridges, waterways closed in Tampa as Debby slams Florida

Tampa Mayor Jane Castor joined FOX weather on Monday to explain how the city is dealing with the deadly impacts of Tropical Storm Debby after the then-hurricane made landfall to the north along the Big Bend early Monday morning.

KEY WEST, Fla. – A developing tropical cyclone in the Gulf of Mexico left behind a peculiar sight along a beach in the Florida Keys, with more than two dozen packages of cocaine washing ashore.

A representative for the U.S. Customs and Border Protection said that they were alerted to 25 packages of the drugs by a Good Samaritan on Sunday as Tropical Storm Debby passed west of the islands.

According to the agency, the drugs weighed about 70 pounds and have a street value of over a million dollars.

Photos released by Samuel Briggs II, the acting chief patrol agent for the Border Patrol’s Miami sector, showed the bricks with a red triangular logo, which could be a marking of a drug hauler or cartel from a foreign nation.

SEE IT: DEBBY’S HURRICANE-FORCE WINDS SLAM FLORIDA AT LANDFALL AFTER INTENSIFYING OVER GULF OF MEXICO

Briggs did not state where he believes the drugs originated or how long they had been in the ocean.

Debby was a tropical storm when it made its closest approach to the Keys and South Florida over the weekend.

The storm system formed south of Cuba on Saturday and gained strength as it moved into the warm waters of the Gulf of Mexico.

Due to the close proximity to the cyclone, parts of the Keys were put under a Tropical Storm Warning and were expecting a storm surge of 1-4 feet.

Only minor damage was reported on the islands as wind gusts reached 60 mph at a weather observation site at Alligator Reef.

HURRICANE NICOLE UNEARTHS HUMAN REMAINS ALONG FLORIDA’S TREASURE COAST

Tropical storms and hurricanes that impact the Sunshine State have a long history of unearthing artifacts and washing ashore peculiar items.

In 2022, Hurricane Nicole was credited with unearthing human remains at a historical Native American burial mound along Florida’s Treasure Coast.

And in 2019, Hurricane Dorian washed ashore many kilos of cocaine along the state’s east coast following its devastating strike on the Bahamas.

Although law enforcement took possession of the contraband, determining its point of origin is difficult because, in many cases, the items may have traveled hundreds of miles through rough waters.

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Nation

MIAMI (AP) — A tropical depression strengthened into Tropical Storm Debby north of Cuba on Saturday and was newly predicted to become a hurricane as it moves through the Gulf of Mexico on a collision course with Florida.

Forecasters at the National Hurricane Center said the storm now had maximum sustained winds of 40 mph (65 kph). Debby was located about 100 miles (160 kilometers) west-southwest of Key West, Florida, and it was moving toward the northwest at 15 mph (24 kph).

Wind and thunderstorms have spread over a broad region, including southern Florida, the Florida Keys and the Bahamas.

Debby is likely to bring drenching rain and coastal flooding to much of Florida’s Gulf Coast by Sunday night, and predictions show the system could come ashore as a strong tropical storm or hurricane late Sunday or Monday and cross over northern Florida into the Atlantic Ocean.

READ MORE: As hurricane season begins, Florida village still recovering from last year’s Hurricane Idalia

Forecasters warn it could also drop heavy rains over north Florida and the Atlantic coasts of Georgia, South Carolina and North Carolina early next week.

Debby is the fourth named storm of the 2024 Atlantic hurricane season after Tropical Storm Alberto, Hurricane Beryl and Tropical Storm Chris, all of which formed in June.

The National Hurricane Center in Miami predicted that the system will strengthen as it curves off the southwest Florida coast, where the water has been extremely warm. Intensification was expected to proceed more quickly later on Sunday.

Tropical storm warnings were posted for Florida’s West Coast the southern Florida Keys and the Dry Tortugas, and a hurricane watch was issued for parts of the Big Bend and Florida Panhandle. A tropical storm watch extended farther west into the Panhandle. A warning means storm conditions are expected within 36 hours, while a watch means they are possible within 48 hours.

Tropical storms and hurricanes can trigger river flooding and overwhelm drainage systems and canals. Forecasters warned of 6 to 12 inches (150mm to 300 mm) of rain, and up to 18 inches (450 mm) in isolated areas, which could create “locally considerable” flash and urban flooding. Forecasters also warned of moderate flooding for some rivers along Florida’s West Coast.

Some of the heaviest rains could actually come next week along the Atlantic Coast from Jacksonville, Florida, through coastal regions of Georgia, South Carolina and North Carolina. The storm is expected to slow down after making landfall.

“We could see a stall or a meandering motion around coastal portions of the southeastern United States,” National Hurricane Center Director Michael Brennan said in a Saturday briefing. “So that’s going to exacerbate not just the rainfall risk, but also the potential for storm surge and some strong winds.”

Flat Florida is prone to flooding even on sunny days, and the storm was predicted to bring a surge of 2 to 4 feet (0.6 to 1.2 meters) along most of the Gulf Coast, including Tampa Bay, with a storm tide of up to 7 feet (2.1 meters) north of there in the sparsely populated Big Bend region.

Forecasters warned of “a danger of life-threatening storm surge inundation” in a region that includes Hernando Beach, Crystal River, Steinhatchee and Cedar Key. Officials in Citrus and Levy counties ordered a mandatory evacuation of coastal areas, while those in Hernando, Manatee, Pasco and Taylor counties called for voluntary evacuations. Shelters opened in those and some other counties.

Citrus County Sheriff Mike Prendergast estimated 21,000 people live in his county’s evacuation zone. Officials rescued 73 people from storm surge flooding during last year’s Hurricane Idalia, and Prendergast said by phone that he’s hoping not to have a repeat with Debbie.

“After the storm surge does come in, we simply don’t have enough first responders in our agency and among the other first responders in the county to go in and rescue everybody that might need to be rescued,” he said.

Gov. Ron DeSantis has declared a state of emergency for 61 of Florida’s 67 counties, with the National Guard activating 3,000 guard members. Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp made his own emergency proclamation on Saturday.

In Tampa alone, officials gave out more than 30,000 sandbags to barricade against flooding.

“We’ve got our stormwater drains cleared out. We’ve got our generators all checked and full. We’re doing everything that we need to be prepared to face a tropical storm,” Tampa Mayor Jane Castor said.

Christina Lothrop is the general manager at Blue Pelican Marina in Hernando Beach, a barrier island about 50 miles (80 kilometers) north of St. Petersburg. She said the public ramp was jammed Saturday with people launching boats.

“Today it’s kind of normal, which is kind of weird,” Lothrop told The Associated Press by telephone.

Workers at her marina have been preparing since Tuesday, however, securing boats stored on racks, stowing tool boxes and tying everything down.

“Right now what we’re doing is mostly tying up boats,” Lothrop said.

Before closing Saturday, Lothrop planned to raise computers off the floor and sandbag and tape doors. Idalia pushed about a foot of water (30 centimeters) into the store.

Betti Silverman, whose home in Crystal River was under an evacuation order, said on Saturday afternoon that she doubted her family would leave. Silverman’s waterfront home flooded during Idalia just as her family was moving in, ruining boxes and furniture in the garage. But she said the forecast for Debby didn’t seem as severe.

“We’ve been in Florida our whole lives — in South Florida — so hurricanes are not really a big, big thing,” Silverman said.

On Friday, crews pulled floating cranes away from a bridge construction project across Tampa Bay, lashing together 74 barges and 24 floating cranes and anchoring them, project engineer Marianne Brinson told the Tampa Bay Times. Crews also laid down cranes on land on their sides.

Pinellas County paused a $5 million beach renourishment project necessitated in part by erosion from past storms.

For some, the name Debby summons bad memories of a 2012 tropical storm of the same name that caused $250 million in losses and eight deaths, including seven in the Sunshine State. That storm dumped torrential rains, including an astronomical 29 inches (730 mm) south of Tallahassee.

Meanwhile, more than 750 miles (1,200 kilometers) off Mexico in the Pacific Ocean, Hurricane Carlotta continued moving westward with top sustained winds of 85 mph (140 kph). Carlotta began losing strength Saturday and is likely to dissipate into a remnant of thunderstorms.

Even farther west, Tropical Storm Daniel formed in the Pacific. It was more than 1,500 miles (2,400 km) from the southern tip of Baja California and was also expected to dissipate without striking land.

A hurricane watch has been issued for a portion of Florida's Gulf Coast as Tropical Depression Four moves toward the Gulf of Mexico, according to the latest advisory from the National Hurricane Center.

The depression is expected to become Tropical Storm Debby later today and to approach hurricane strength before making landfall.

➤ Live updates: Get the latest on Tropical Depression 4 as it approaches Florida

➤ Spaghetti models for Tropical Depression Four

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis Thursday declared a state of emergency Thursday for 54 counties. Seven more counties were added late Friday, putting 61 of Florida's 67 counties under a state of emergency.

To become a tropical storm, sustained winds must reach 39 mph.

Sustained winds were at 30 mph as of the 5 a.m. advisory.

Where is Tropical Depression Four?

➤ Track all active storms

➤ Excessive rainfall forecast

Tropical Depression Four expected to strengthen into Tropical Storm Debby

At 5 a.m., the center of Tropical Depression Four was located near latitude 22.0 North, longitude 80.7 West.

The depression is moving toward the west-northwest near 16 mph. A turn toward the northwest is forecast today, followed by a northward motion on Sunday and then a slower northeastward motion Sunday night and Monday.

➤ How could tropical storm affect your weekend plans?

On the forecast track, the center of the depression will move across western Cuba this morning, and then move over the eastern Gulf of Mexico later today and Sunday, reaching the Florida Gulf Coast late Sunday or Monday.

Maximum sustained winds are near 30 mph, with higher gusts.

Strengthening is forecast during the next couple of days, and the depression is expected to become a tropical storm later today and continue strengthening over the eastern Gulf of Mexico through the weekend.

The estimated minimum central pressure is 1009 mb.

Spaghetti models: Latest forecasts on where Tropical Depression Four could make Florida landfall

Special note about spaghetti models: Spaghetti model illustrations include an array of forecast tools and models, and not all are created equal. The Hurricane Center uses only the top four or five highest performing models to help make its forecasts.

Hurricane, tropical storm watches and warnings issued for Florida

A hurricane watch is in effect for:

A hurricane watch means that hurricane conditions are possible within the watch area. A watch is typically issued 48 hours before the anticipated first occurrence of tropical-storm-force winds, conditions that make outside preparations difficult or dangerous.

A tropical storm warning is in effect for:

A tropical storm warning means that tropical storm conditions are expected somewhere within the warning area within 36 hours.

A tropical storm watch is in effect for:

A tropical storm watch means that tropical storm conditions are possible within the watch area, generally within 48 hours.

A storm surge watch is in effect for:

A storm surge watch means there is a possibility of life-threatening inundation, from rising water moving inland from the coastline, in the indicated locations during the next 48 hours.

What is the forecast for Polk

Polk County is under a tropical storm watch, meaning it should experience winds below tropical storm force. The peak wind forecast is 10-20 mph with gusts to 25 mph.

Below tropical storm force wind - Peak Wind Forecast: 10-20 mph with gusts to 25 mph, but there is potential for wind from 39 to 57 mph, according to the National Weather Service. And there's the potential for moderate flooding rain, 2-4 inches and heavier in some areas. The Weather service says conditions are "somewhat favorable for tornadoes."

The official NWS forecast for Lakeland:

Saturday: Showers and possibly a thunderstorm. High near 92. Heat index values as high as 104. East wind 5 to 11 mph. Chance of precipitation is 80%. New rainfall amounts between a quarter and half of an inch possible.

Saturday night: Showers likely and possibly a thunderstorm before 8pm, then scattered showers and thunderstorms between 8pm and 5am, then showers likely and possibly a thunderstorm after 5am. Some of the storms could produce heavy rainfall. Mostly cloudy, with a low around 76. East wind around 11 mph. Chance of precipitation is 60%. New rainfall amounts between a tenth and quarter of an inch, except higher amounts possible in thunderstorms.

Sunday: Showers and possibly a thunderstorm. Some of the storms could produce heavy rainfall. High near 84. Breezy, with an east southeast wind 14 to 18 mph, with gusts as high as 25 mph. Chance of precipitation is 90%. New rainfall amounts between three quarters and one inch possible.

Sunday Night: Showers and possibly a thunderstorm, mainly before 2am, then scattered showers and thunderstorms after 2am. Some of the storms could produce heavy rainfall. Low around 76. Breezy, with a south wind around 16 mph, with gusts as high as 22 mph. Chance of precipitation is 80%.

Potential impacts from Potential Tropical Cyclone Four

WINDS: Hurricane conditions are possible in the hurricane watch area by Sunday night, with tropical storm conditions possible by Sunday. Tropical storm conditions are expected to spread northward over the warning areas beginning later today and continuing through Sunday. Tropical storm conditions are possible in the watch area in the Florida Keys later today or tonight, and in the Florida Panhandle by late Sunday.

STORM SURGE: The combination of storm surge and tide will cause normally dry areas near the coast to be flooded by rising waters moving inland from the shoreline. The water could reach the following heights above ground somewhere in the indicated areas if the peak surge occurs at the time of high tide:

RAINFALL: Tropical Depression Four is expected to produce rainfall totals of 5 to 10 inches, with maximum rainfall totals up to 15 inches, across portions of Florida and along the Southeast U.S. coast this weekend through Thursday morning. This rainfall may result in areas of locally considerable flash and urban flooding, with isolated river flooding possible.

TORNADOES: A tornado or two is possible across the Florida Keys and the western Florida Peninsula tonight through Sunday morning.

SURF: Swells generated by the depression are expected to affect much of the Gulf coast of Florida tonight through Monday and along the Southeast U.S. coast early next week. These swells are likely to cause life-threatening surf and rip current conditions.

Key messages on what Florida can expect from tropical cyclone

Florida Gov. DeSantis issues state of emergency for 61 counties

Gov. Ron DeSantis issued a state of emergency Thursday for 54 counties in preparation for the potential landfall of a storm that could become the first "significant threat" to the state.

Friday night, he added another seven counties. That brings 61 of the state's 67 counties under a state of emergency.

Weather watches and warnings issued in Florida

When is the Atlantic hurricane season?

The Atlantic hurricane season runs from June 1 through Nov. 30.

When is the peak of hurricane season?

The peak of the season is Sept. 10, with the most activity happening between mid-August and mid-October, according to the Hurricane Center.

National Hurricane Center map: What are forecasters watching now?

Systems currently being monitored by the National Hurricane Center include:

Interactive map: Hurricanes, tropical storms that have passed near your city

Excessive rainfall forecast

What's next?

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