75 POUNDS OF MARIJUANA WASHES UP ON BEACH

ST. LUCIE COUNTY -- About 75 pounds of marijuana washed up on a South
Hutchinson Island beach, north of the St. Lucie Power Plant Wednesday
morning.

Deputies received a call around 11:30 a.m. from someone saying there
were strange packages on the shore, in the 5000 block of South Ocean
Drive. The 15 well-packaged bricks had no marks to indicate where they
might have come from, said Chief Deputy Garry Wilson of the St. Lucie
County Sheriff's Office.

It's unclear how the packages might have ended up in the water, he
said. They were found off the same stretch of beach.

"It's highly speculative to what happened. There are a number of
ideas. Maybe someone got scared and threw them overboard. There might
have been a boat accident," he said.

The packages were collected and taken to the Sheriff's
Office.

The average street value for a pound of marijuana is between $800 to
$1,000, Wilson said. The estimated value of the marijuana found is
roughly $75,000.

There have been many situations where illegal matter has washed up
along Florida shores, Wilson said.

"Two weeks ago, two kilos of cocaine were found around North Beach.
People are still actively doing drug trades," he said.

With Florida's location, it's not much of a surprise that this
happens, Wilson said.

The beach remained open while deputies spent the afternoon looking for
additional bricks.

"We don't know what the intended destination was," Wilson said. "The
packages are being held for evidence and will be burned."