Mayor catches 70 pounds of cocaine while on fishing trip with family
That's one catch that certainly won't be released...
The thing about fishing is that you never know what you're going to catch.
You cast out your line hopeful of success, but of course not expecting anything. Some days are a bonanza, other days the fish just aren't biting.
One mayor certainly got more than she bargained for when she went out on a fishing trip. It was a 70 pound catch, quite a haul even accounting for the enormous grouper that patrol the waters off Florida.
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But this was no fish, nor was it a squid or indeed any of the popular game species which anglers often chase off Florida.
Tampa Mayor Jane Castor had been out on a fishing trip trying to catch Mahi Mahi with her family when they spotted a package floating in the water about the size of a microwave. Castor was a veteran of the Tampa Police Department and quickly recognised the package for what it was, drugs.
She and her companions proceeded to haul in a whopping 70 pounds of cocaine from the depths during a fishing trip.
They then contacted the US Border Patrol who were able to come and take custody of the drugs, which had been packed into 25 bricks and then sealed up, marked with a design of a blue butterfly.
In total, the cocaine was estimated to have a street value of around $1.1 million.
That's one catch that certainly didn't get away!
Tampa Police thanked the mayor and her companions for their help in retrieving the stash of drugs from the ocean.
Assistant Chief Patrol Agent Adam Hoffner said: "We appreciate the ongoing support from our boating community. Thanks to the efforts of this Good Samaritan, 70 pounds of cocaine are in federal custody and off our streets. We encourage the community to immediately report suspicious activity to local authorities,”
Mayor Castor is certainly no stranger to law enforcement, having previously been in the Tampa Police Department. Her bio online says that she 'spent 31 years with the Tampa Police Department, serving in nearly every capacity and in nearly every neighborhood of the city.'
It added: "In October of 2009, Castor became Tampa’s first female Chief of Police, serving for six years in that role."
It's not the first time that drugs have been found floating around in the sea off the Florida coast. Around a week after Castor's discovery someone else found another brick of cocaine weighing around 2.7 pounds.
As for the rest of the trip? Well they didn't catch any more cocaine, but they did manage to haul in around 60 lobsters - not too shabby ay, Jane?
Kit Roberts