Hurricane Debby Hits Florida
Hurricane Debby officially hit Florida on Monday, marking the Sunshine State’s first hurricane strike of the 2024 season.
Source: MODIS Land Rapid Response Team, NASA GSFC/Wikimedia Commons
While Debby brutally hit the Big Bend Region in the northern part of the state, other areas of Florida experienced the outskirts of the storm.
Debby in the Florida Keys
While Debby didn’t hit the Florida Keys heavily, it did pass through the region as a developing tropical cyclone, located in the Gulf of Mexico, on Sunday night.
Source: Ioana Trandafir/Unsplash
This led to officials placing regions of the Florida Keys under a Tropical Storm Warning. Debby eventually formed into a Category 1 hurricane before it made complete landfall in north Florida.
A Surprise Discovery
On Sunday, one Good Samaritan was walking along a beach in the Florida Keys, after Debby had passed through, when they made one remarkable discovery.
Source: Florida-Guidebook.com/Unsplash
This person found a whopping 25 packages of cocaine that had seemingly washed ashore during Debby’s storms.
Authorities Alerted
This person quickly alerted the authorities, and the U.S. Customs and Border Protection eventually revealed this stunning news to the public.
Source: Emmanuelle Marcade/Unsplash
The agency explained that these 25 packages were all full of cocaine and weighed about 70 pounds.
Worth $1 Million
Even more interesting, the agency clarified that this massive amount of cocaine — all found on a beach after a particularly strong storm passed through — was worth quite a lot of money.
Source: Vladimir Solomianyi/Unsplash
According to the agency, these packages have a street value of more than $1 million.
Interesting Logos
Even more interesting factors are associated with this finding. As seen in the photos released by Samuel Briggs II, the Border Patrol’s Miami sector’s acting chief patrol agent, these packages had interesting logos on them.
Source: U.S. Customs and Border Protection/X
Every single package of cocaine had a red triangular logo on the front of it.
What Do These Logos Mean?
According to the Border Patrol, these logos could mean a variety of different things.
Source: Scott Rodgerson/Unsplash
However, they believe that the logo could be a drug hauler’s marking. It could also be the logo of a cartel, especially one from a foreign nation.
Where Did These Drugs Come From?
The agency didn’t clarify where they thought this massive amount of cocaine may have come from, nor where it may have originated from.
Source: Lance Asper/Unsplash
As it appears these many packages washed ashore thanks to Debby, there’s no accurate way to track where they came from. These packages could have traveled great distances in the rough ocean waters.
Florida Keys During Hurricane Debby
Luckily, these discovered cocaine packages were the only major reports that came out of the Florida Keys after Hurricane Debby hit Florida.
Source: Diego F. Parra/Pexels
The Keys dealt well under the strong storm, and reporting so far has suggested that only minor damage has been seen on the islands.
Unearthing Surprising Mysteries
Florida is no stranger to surprising mysteries or objects being unearthed in the aftermath of a tropical storm or hurricane.
Source: Michael Monahan/Unsplash
In 2022, Hurricane Nicole reportedly unearthed human remains at a Native American burial mound located on Florida’s Treasure Coast.
Cocaine Has Been Found Before
This also isn’t the first time a hurricane has passed through Florida and washed ashore packages of cocaine.
Source: Nextvoyage/Pexels
In 2019, Hurricane Dorian did exactly this, and many kilos of cocaine were found along the Sunshine State’s east coast.