Packages weighing a total of about 110 pounds containing a white powdery substance that is suspected to be cocaine have washed up on Matagorda County beaches in Texas, authorities said Tuesday.
Lt. Philip Hester of the Matagorda County Sheriff’s Office Narcotics Division authored the press release about the washed-up cocaine, which was then posted on Facebook.
“With in the last 7 days 50 kilos of suspected cocaine has washed up on the beaches of Matagorda County. Typically speaking a kilo has a weight of 2.2 pounds but due to the packages that washed up being wet these bundles vary in weight,” Hester wrote in the post.
After each package was taken from the beach, Hester said, they were processed, photographed and kept as possible evidence by the Matagorda County Sheriff’s Office.
“Please keep in mind that if you ever find a suspicious package on the beach, do not touch or pick up the packages,” Hester instructed the public in the press release. If someone does pick up a suspicious package of drugs, they could be seriously harmed, Hester warned.
The reason being, the Matagorda County Sheriff’s Office Lieutenant claimed, is that the drugs inside can become liquid and leak out of the package. “Once the substance becomes liquid form it is easier to absorb into the skin and could cause a person to become ill or it could possibly be fatal,” Hester added. (RELATED: CBP Agents Find Buckets Of Meth Valued At More Than $4 Million)
If that was not a big enough deterrent for beachgoers to not pick up packages of drugs washed ashore, Harris added that “once a person picks up the package, that person is in possession of the package and could be charged for the criminal charge of Possession.”
This isn’t the first time cocaine has washed up on shore in the southern United States. Earlier in May, 70 pounds of cocaine and 62 pounds of marijuana were found in the water off the Florida Keys, and was valued at $1.7 million in total.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers (CBP) on Friday found more than 1,100 pounds of methamphetamine that were hidden in a watermelon shipment.