the Florida coast, full of cocaine dumped by traffickers

This is just one of the numerous discoveries in recent months, a product of the intense traffic from South American countries to the coast of Floridawhich acts as a distribution center in the United States.

It is believed that the traffickers have been carrying the drugs from Mexico or another producing country and throw it in waterproof packages, so that the accomplices collect the packages and market them. In other cases, they get rid of them when they are chased by security agencies.

The last “loads”

• January. The US Coast Guard discovered almost a ton of cocaine valued at $32 million in international waters of the Caribbean Sea, during two separate cases.
• May. Some vacationers who were swimming in the Florida Keys found a package on the beach that had about 30 kilos of cocaineworth one million dollars.
• June. Coastal authorities seized more than 2,000 kilos of cocaine in Port Everglades, Fort Lauderdale, the port that is the economic engine in South Florida. The drugs are believed to have come from Venezuela and were worth $63 million.
• June. Keys divers found more than a dozen packages of cocaine in coastal waters. They were marked with a blue label “Nike SB” and the Nike logo. They were “anchored” about 30 meters under water. It also exceeded a million dollars.

High traffic area

Throughout May, the United States Coast Guard recovered more than 186 million dollars in illegal narcotics from the waters of the Caribbean and southern Florida, which gives an idea of ​​what is happening.

However, experts point out that these seizures have little impact on an industry operating at record levels. What is discovered is only a tiny part. The vast majority manages to enter the United States, where there is high consumption.

Florida serves as a stopping point for large quantities of drugs arriving from South America, and its waters offer them the possibility of throw the merchandise if they see that they can be caught.

The large production of cocaine is in Colombia, Peru and Bolivia, from where shipments depart with a stopover in Mexico and some other Central American countries.

“Drugged” sharks?

So much cocaine is being found in nearshore waters that scientists say some marine species, especially sharksthey could be consuming that drug that is often diluted in water.

A research conducted by Discovery in the Keys of Florida seeks to determine this. “We’ve seen studies with pharmaceuticals, cocaine, methamphetamines, ketamine, all of these, where fish are being affected by drugs“said the doctor Tracy Fanaraan environmental engineer based in Florida.

Fanara and British marine biologist Tom Hird, members of the Discovery research team, They observed sharks exhibiting peculiar behaviors.

“If these bales of cocaine are a point source of contamination, it is very possible that sharks could be affected by this chemical substance. Cocaine is so soluble that any of those packages open a little, the structural integrity is destroyed and the drug remains in the water,” explains Fanara.

The expert maintained that the problem is very serious: “While we were filming the Keys, the bales of cocaine reached the shorelike twice in a week, so it is really a common problem.”