The package containing 70 pounds of cocaine was discovered south of Marathon Island in the Florida Keys on July 23, according to US Border Patrol.
The mayor of Tampa caught more than fish on a recent family trip on the high seas as she pulled in over a million dollars in cocaine, according to reports.
While out on a fishing boat with her family in the Florida Keys, Tampa Mayor Jane Castor's brother noticed the package floating in the water, according to CNN.
The package containing 70 pounds of cocaine with butterfly images on it was discovered south of Marathon Island on July 23, according to US Border Patrol.
Castor spoke to local news outlet WTSP about the find and joked that people could think the drugs could be hers.
"You know my family was concerned, like, 'Oh my gosh, what if they think it's ours,'" Castor joked. "I'm like, come on. So, we pulled it up and then as soon as we were in cellphone range just to call and notify them."
The incident, which occurred at the end of July, was first brought to the public’s attention by Chief Patrol U.S. Border Patrol's Miami Sector Agent Walter Slosar, who posted about the find on Twitter and said the cocaine was "discovered by a recreational boater" in the Florida Keys.
"The drugs have an estimated street value of approx. $1.1 million dollars," Slosar wrote in the tweet with an image of the haul.
This week, Castor reposted it to her own Twitter page, adding the grinning, squinting face emoji leading to local news outlet asking her about the tweet.
Castor then told CBS Miami that it was her brother who found the drugs while they were out fishing.
"My younger brother saw some debris in the water, and so we went over there because, quite often, if you fish, the smaller fish will go under any kind of shade they can get. That attracts the larger fish, like triple tail," the mayor told CBS Miami. "We thought it was shade as opposed to something shady. But, you know, the closer we got and once I saw the rip in it and see the tightly wrapped packages, I was like, definitely that's a bale of cocaine."
Finding bricks of cocaine in the Florida waters is not uncommon.
Days after Slosar posted about Castor’s find, he took to Twitter to showcase a near three-pound brick of coke with a street value of $41,000 that was found by a good Samaritan.
