WRECK WAS LIKELY SOURCE OF COCAINE, SHERIFF SAYS

HOUMA (AP) - A smugglers' wreck probably released the shrink-wrapped
bundles of cocaine that have washed ashore over the past month, the
Terrebonne Parish sheriff says.

"A boat sunk or an airplane sunk," Sheriff Jerry Larpenter said. "Something
sunk out there and hopefully the pilot or the crew went down with it."

The Coast Guard has been looking since Wednesday for cocaine and wreckage,
and has not found any indication that a plane or boat went down, Petty
Officer Nick Cangemi said Sunday.

He said a total of 264 pounds of cocaine has been found, almost all by
local fishermen who turned them over to authorities.

A Coast Guard plane and boat were out Sunday as part of the search, Cangemi
said.

Larpenter said the drug has been found along nearly

200 miles of coast, as far east as Grand Isle and as far west as Four
League Bay, near the Terrebonne-St. Mary Parish line. His officers were
patrolling waters abutting the Gulf of Mexico to look for more.

The cocaine is shrink-wrapped in yellow two-kilo packets and in
multicolored packets of one kilo - 2.2 pounds - each.

Most has turned up in Terrebonne Parish waters. On Friday, some cocaine and
possibly marijuana was found in Lafourche Parish, near Port Fourchon.