Hurricane Debby washes $1 million in cocaine ashore

Hurricane Debby struck the coasts of Florida, Georgia, and South Carolina on Monday, August 5. Waves washed ashore packages with surprising contents. They turned out to be worth over a million dollars.

According to Border Patrol officers in Miami, quoted by the newspaper "The Guardian," a passerby came across a package while walking on the beach on one of the islands of the Florida Keys after Hurricane Debby had passed.

The man found packages on the beach containing almost 70 lbs of cocaine. A Border Patrol representative, Samuel Briggs, shared a photo of 25 packages of drugs on the platform X. According to his account, the finder of the cocaine immediately contacted the authorities.

Officers immediately confiscated and secured the find. They also estimated that the black-market value of the drugs exceeds one million dollars (approx. CAD 1,350,000).

The hurricane hit the coasts of Florida, Georgia, and South Carolina, causing the death of five people—four in Florida, including two children—and one in Georgia.

Since Monday, the hurricane has weakened but turned into a tropical storm. The accompanying rainfall is causing floods and flooding. Rescue operations are underway for hundreds of people whose homes are underwater. President Joe Biden has authorized the governors of both states and South Carolina to declare a state of emergency.

According to the latest forecasts from meteorologists, in the next two days, the wind is expected to reach speeds of over 60 mph. Debby will thus remain a tropical storm but close to the hurricane threshold of 75 mph.