$100,000 worth of cocaine washes ashore at Florida beaches: officials

Packages of cocaine worth more than $100,000 recently washed ashore at three beaches in Florida, authorities said. 

The Walton County Sheriff's Office said three packages washed up in early April at Miramar Beach, Gulfview Heights, and Grayton Beach State Park, which are located in the Florida Panhandle.

The first package was found on April 3 at Miramar beach after someone found a Ziploc bag wrapped in clear plastic, according to a post on the Walton County Sheriff's Office's Facebook page. That packaged was confiscated and submitted for destruction, officials said.

That same day, a suspicious package was reported at Gulfview Heights Beach. 

"The package was wrapped in a bio bag and was black in color with a logo sticker on the outside. The package was brought to the South Walton substation where it later tested positive for cocaine and submitted for destruction," the sheriff's office said.

On Tuesday, another brick of cocaine was found at Grayton Beach State Park.

The sheriff's office said it was not uncommon for deputies to respond to the beach for suspicious items that may have washed ashore, including possible drugs, ordnances, or other items.

The U.S. Coast Guard was notified of the incidents.

Last October, officials found 50 individually wrapped packages of powdered cocaine at Vero Beach. Officials said at the time the drugs had an estimated street value of $1.7 million. A month later, three pounds of cocaine were found at a beach in Brevard County.

In December 2022, there was a mystery at Flagler Beach where six or so wooden pillars appeared from the sand. Turns out, it was the remnants of what is believed to be the first wooden pier at Flagler Beach, which would have been built in the 1940s.

The beams were exposed after Hurricane Ian and Hurricane Nicole.

At Daytona Beach, the remnants of a 17th-Century shipwreck were uncovered after the impact of Hurricane Nicole washed away some of the sand.

Archeologists took some samples from the wood to get a better timeframe of when the ship sailed the seas.

"Imagine as many Amazon trucks that you see on the roads today, this was the equivalent in the 1800s,"said Christopher McCarron, archeology administrative director and the vessel captain of the St. Augustine maritime program.