Marshall Islands police have reported the surprising boat that was loaded with cocaine. The illegal stuff was hidden in a compartment beneath the deck, the officials said.
The largest-ever haul of cocaine in the history of Marshall Islands was found in an abandoned boat that washed up on a remote atoll after drifting on the high seas. The experts believe a boat has been adrifting in the sea potentially for years.
The 5.5m fibreglass boat was found at Ailuk atoll last week with 649 kilos of cocaine hidden in a compartment beneath the deck, said Attorney-General Richard Hickson.
The vessel most likely drifted across the Pacific from Central or South America. The drugs were in 1kg packages marked with the letters “KW”, were incinerated on Tuesday. The two packs that will be given to the US Drug Enforcement Agency for analysis.
The island police say that debris from the Americas often washes up in the Marshalls after months or years at sea. The Pacific Ocean currents are full of surprises but finding the cocaine clandestine became the biggest one.
Over the past two decades, the police of Marshalls have been founded numerous other stashes of drugs found along the shoreline, but the latest haul was by far the largest. Origins of founded cocaine will be determined after lab analysis.
Law enforcement officials have various theories about the origins of such drugs, including that they were abandoned when smugglers were in danger of being caught or lost in storms.
After his discovery, University of Hawaii researchers conducted 16 computer simulations of drift patterns from the Mexico coast and found nearly all eventually arrived in the Marshall Islands.
