TRAWLER FINDS 65 POUNDS OF COCAINE

Empire Discovery Was Likely Dumped

A trawler in the waters off Empire hauled in a major catch early Friday:
about 65 pounds of cocaine, worth at least $2 million on the street,
authorities said.

Plaquemines Parish Sheriff Jiff Hingle said it is the largest haul of
cocaine in the parish he can recall.

The discovery, made in the Bastain Bay area off Empire on the west
bank of Plaquemines, is believed to be part of more than 1,000 pounds
of the drug that has shown up along the Gulf coast since May. Federal
authorities said tests have been inconclusive on whether all the
cocaine recovered is from the same shipment.

Authorities have speculated that drug traffickers likely dumped a
shipment in the Gulf of Mexico, fearing they would be stopped by
federal authorities at sea. Bales of cocaine have floated with the
current to various spots along the Gulf coast, federal officials have
said.

"If it was part of one shipment it's hard to tell what port they were
trying to get to," Hingle said Friday. "They probably got nervous and
decided to jettison the cargo."

No arrests have been made. Hingle said the 65 pounds found Friday are
worth about $10,000 a pound wholesale and much more on the street.

It's the third time since June 24 that bundles of cocaine have washed
ashore in Plaquemines Parish. Two-pound packages were found July 8 and
June 24, sheriff's officials said.

The latest find was bundled into 16 packages found by crewmen aboard a
trawler, who alerted the Plaquemines Parish Sheriff's Office. The
drugs are being turned over to U.S. Immigration and Customs
Enforcement. Several south Louisiana parishes have recovered cocaine
that has washed ashore, with 80 pounds of the drug discovered over the
weekend at Navarre Beach in Florida, said officials of U.S.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

Cocaine has also been found along the coasts of Terrebonne and
Lafourche parishes, and on Grand Isle, federal officials said. Early
last month, 296 pounds of yellow, shrink-wrapped bricks of cocaine
were found about 12 miles south of Cocodrie, the largest amount ever
recovered in Terrebonne Parish, officials said.