Tampa Mayor Jane Castor found a massive shipment of cocaine while fishing in the Florida Keys (Pictures: AP / Twitter / Chief Patrol Agent Walter)
The Mayor of Tampa found over 70 pounds of cocaine while fishing in the Florida Keys.
On July 23, Customs and Border Patrol (CBP) Agents reported a Good Samaritan discovered a suspicious package while fishing south of Marathon, Florida.
Marathon is located in the Florida Keys, the southernmost point of the continental United States.
CBP agents said the package contained 25 bricks full of cocaine. They weighed about 70 pounds in total, and had an estimated street value of $1.1million.
A day after the find, CBP’s chief patrol agent in Miami shared a photo of the packages, which were plastic-wrapped and marked with a blue-violet butterfly logo.
‘We appreciate the ongoing support from our boating community,’ a CBP spokesperson said. ‘Thanks to the efforts of this Good Samaritan, 70 pounds of cocaine are in federal custody and off our streets.’
Mayor Castor found a total of 25 packages floating in the Gulf of Mexico (Picture: CBP)
On Tuesday, the Tampa Bay Times identified the Good Samaritan as the current Tampa Mayor Jane Castor.
According to the report, the mayor was fishing off the coast of Marathon when her sister, Kelly Castor, noticed the floating packages.
The sisters hauled the package in and reported it to the local police in Marathon, who quickly turned it over to CBP.
Before running for mayor in 2016, Castor spent 31 years in the Tampa Police Department. She worked in the narcotics division for about eight years before becoming Assistant Chief in 2005, then Chief of Police in 2009.
A spokesperson for the mayor’s office declined to comment, but confirmed the report in the Tampa Bay Times.
This isn’t the first cocaine shipment federal agents have found in innocuous packages.
Last year, CBP stopped a truck crossing the Laredo-Colombia Solidarity Bridge in Texas.
The truck was carrying hundreds of packages of baby wipes. Upon closer inspection, federal investigators quickly found that the shipment was hiding a massive stash of cocaine.
In total, federal agents found 1,532.6 pounds of cocaine with an estimated street value of $11.8million.
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Mayor Jane Castor found 70 pounds of drugs while fishing in the Florida Keys.