While on a fishing excursion in Florida aiming to catch mahi-mahi, Tampa Mayor Jane Castor and her family stumbled upon a discovery worth over a million dollars – not fish, but cocaine.
Mayor Castor, previously Tampa’s chief of police, was in the Florida Keys for her son’s birthday celebration. During their trip, her younger brother noticed an odd object floating in the Atlantic.
Pulling the unusual find aboard their vessel, Castor quickly identified it as narcotics. “The closer we approached, the more it looked like a bundle of cocaine,” she shared with FOX13 Tampa.
The family faced a challenge as the package was hefty, and they used a gaff to secure it onto their boat. Without hesitation, Castor reached out to the local authorities.
She mentioned to the media that although she had come across various unexpected items in the ocean, encountering a floating bundle of cocaine was a first for them.
Subsequently, the U.S. Border Patrol in the Miami region confirmed that the Castor family had indeed unearthed 25 bricks of cocaine while out in the Florida Keys.
Officials stated the narcotics weighed roughly 70 pounds, with an estimated street worth of about $1.1 million.
Gratitude was expressed by a U.S. Customs and Border Protection representative, saying, “We value the proactive involvement of our boaters. Thanks to this responsible act, 70 pounds of cocaine are now secured by federal agents and removed from circulation.”
It’s worth noting that before her role as mayor, Castor dedicated thirty years to the Tampa Police Department. She notably spent a significant period working with narcotics and made history as the city’s first female chief of police.
