Kelly Henson of the Port Aransas Police Department lays out packages of cocaine on a table at the police station on Friday, Nov. 13. A beachcomber found the packages lying at the water’s edge on the beach earlier in the day and called police. Staff photo by Dan Parker
Marty Stover was just looking for sea shells.
But he found a lot more than that.
Strolling along the beach in Port Aransas on Friday, Nov. 13, Stover stumbled upon a package of what’s believed to be about 66 pounds of cocaine.
Stover, a Port Aransas resident, was beachcombing alone near Marker 39 shortly right around dawn when he spotted it.
“I see a big clump by the water’s edge,” he said. “At first, I thought it was an old cooler. But when I got closer, I saw it was wrapped up, all tied up in rope.”
He pulled out his pocket knife and cut into the plastic sheet that held it all together. Beneath the plastic was a heavier material that was more like a tarp.
He kept cutting “until I saw packages,” he said. “That’s when I stopped and called the police. … When I realized it was drugs, I was like: No way! Can’t be!”
Port Aransas police tested the packaged substance and determined it to be cocaine, said Senior Officer Kelly Henson of the Port Aransas Police Department.
Packages of cocaine rest on a desk at the Port Aransas Police Department on Friday, Nov. 13. The packages, which washed up on the beach, are going to be turned over to federal authorities for destruction, police said. Staff photo by Dan Parker
After cutting away the exterior plastic and tarp material, police found 30 brick-shaped bundles packed with coke. Each bundle was believed to weigh about one kilogram, or about 2.2 pounds. That would make the total weight of the cocaine slightly more than 66 pounds.
The drug was waterlogged, but if it was in good condition, it would be worth roughly a few hundred thousand dollars on the street in the U.S., police said.
As of Friday, police were planning to turn the cocaine over to federal authorities who would destroy it, according to Scott Burroughs, chief of PAPD.
Friday’s discovery could be related to a find made by a beachgoer on the San Jose Island shore on Oct. 29. A brick-shaped package containing about one pound of a white, powdery substance was found there that day and turned over to police.
While illegal drugs do occasionally appear on local shores, it’s unusual to see so much as 60 pounds of cocaine wash up at a time. Henson, who has been working in law enforcement in Port Aransas for 20 years, said he never had seen that much in one package on the beach.
Anyone who finds a suspicious package on the beach should immediately call police, Burroughs said.
If a beachgoer should decide to keep a package of found cocaine himself, and he’s caught with it, he could be arrested and charged with “a serious felony,” the chief said.
Police don’t know where the cocaine came from. Gulf of Mexico currents regularly sweep debris from as far away as Florida, Mexico and South America to Mustang Island.
The cocaine found Friday could have been at sea for a long time. The package had barnacles on it, Henson said.
The package could have been purposely dropped into the Gulf from a boat or airplane by a drug trafficker in a pre-arranged spot where the drug later would be picked up by another trafficker, Burroughs said.
As for Stover, his discovery of more than 60 pounds of cocaine stands as a milestone in his beachcombing efforts, which normally turn up nothing more unusual than seashells, hardhats and bobbers from fishing nets.
“That package,” he said with a laugh, “is probably my No. 1 find, I would have to say.”
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