COCAINE CONTINUES WASHING ASHORE

Current Carries Bales Along Gulf Coast

Nearly four pounds of cocaine, worth up to $10,000 a pound, washed up at
two places on the west bank of Plaquemines Parish in recent weeks, adding
to the more than 1,000 pounds that has shown up along the Gulf Coast since
May, federal and state authorities said.

Several south Louisiana parishes have found cocaine that has washed ashore,
and 80 pounds of the narcotic was discovered over the weekend at Navarre
Beach in Florida, officials of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement said.

Bales of cocaine appeared to have floated with the current to various spots
along the Gulf Coast, federal officials said.

Other Louisiana parishes where cocaine has been found on beaches include
Terrebonne, Lafourche and Grand Isle, federal officials said. In June, 296
pounds of yellow, shrink-wrapped bricks of cocaine was found about 12 miles
south of Cocodrie, the largest amount ever recovered in Terrebonne Parish,
officials said. A commercial fisher found the cocaine on a barrier island
beach off the Terrebonne coast.

Drug traffickers may have dumped the drugs overboard in the Gulf of Mexico
when they feared being stopped at sea by law enforcement agencies, or a
drug-running vessel may have sunk, authorities said.

In Plaquemines Parish, separate two-pound packages were found July 8 and
June 24, sheriff's officials said.

Last week's find was made by a fisher in Bay Adams, off Empire, Maj.
Charles Guey of the Plaquemines Parish Sheriff's Office said. The June 24
discovery was made by a seismic crew in Bay Long, off Port Sulphur, Guey said.

The drugs were turned over to federal authorities, and no arrests have been
made in Plaquemines, Guey said.

There was no information on arrests made in other parishes.