Monroe County Sheriff's Office
The authorities were called to the Rainbow Reef Dive Center in Key Largo after divers found 25 sealed kilos of cocaine during a dive in 100 feet of water off Key Largo, Florida.
The large packages of cocaine were later turned over from the Monroe County Sheriff’s Office (Florida Keys) to U.S. Border Patrol who took control of the drugs and investigation.
It’s unclear what the specific street value of these packages would be, but for context, a 18.89 kilos were seized by U.S. Customs and Border Protection in 2022 and a press release claimed that amount had a street value of $1.3 million. Given that this is nearly 7 kilos more, it’s safe to assume the street value is well over $1.5 million.
Divers found 25 individually wrapped and sealed packages, each weighing 1 kilogram, and each carrying a ‘Nike SB’ logo wrapped underneath the plastic. A photo of the drugs was shared by the Monroe County Sheriff’s Office prior to MCSO turning it over to CBP:
Monroe County Sheriff's Office
On Facebook, the Monroe County Sheriff’s Office shared an update about the finding. They said the divers from the Rainbow Reef Dive Center were in 100 feet off Key Largo and believed they were cleaning up trash from the coral reef when they picked up the packages but quickly suspected the packages were cocaine and immediately called the police.
Officers arrived at the dive shop at 12:25 PM and took charge of the 25 kilograms of cocaine with the $1.5M+ estimated street value and later turned the drugs over to Border Patrol.
It isn’t particularly uncommon for drugs to be found in Florida like this. The term in Florida is ‘Square Grouper’ which was originally used to describe bricks of marijuana found floating in the water but has since been used interchangeably with wrapped kilos of cocaine found floating in the ocean or on reefs by divers.
These wrapped packages come in many forms. Drug smugglers can use them to divert attention from larger incoming shipments. They can simply be lost items. Or they could have GPS trackers inside alerting drug runners where to find them.
If found, it is vital to immediately alert the authorities. Not only can there be serious legal consequences if the police aren’t called it can be a dangerous situation for reasons related to the stuff mentioned above. Always always always call the police first.