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20 kilos of cocaine wash ashore in Martin Co.

Posted at 12:35 PM, Mar 08, 2016
and last updated 2016-03-08 17:47:15-05

Inside the evidence locker at the Martin County Sheriff's Office is the two-day haul of a multi-agency task force. Eighty drug-related arrests were made after drivers were pulled over initially for traffic infractions off I-95.

“We found heroin, we found cocaine, we found pharmaceutical pills being possessed illegally," said Sheriff William Snyder.

Sheriff Snyder says I-95 is a major drug corridor leading from South Florida to the rest of the U.S.

RELATED: View photos of the drugs, money and weapons 

“It’s our collective effort that’s in play here in trying to stem the flow of drugs, the tide of drugs which wash up I-95 from the south," said the Sheriff.

Money, weapons, even flakka were recovered.

"Our thinking in law enforcement is that we were turning the corner on flakka, we were seeing less of it. But the fact that there were 16 grams, that’s an awful lot of individual doses," said the Sheriff.

Unrelated to the Sheriff’s Office operation, on Monday night two women were walking along the beach north of Tequesta and made a major drug discovery. It was 20-kilos of cocaine with an estimated street value of $2 million.

“It’s a clear indication that trafficking routes have not changed, that major amounts of cocaine are still coming in to South Florida," said Sheriff Snyder.

The sheriff’s office is working with federal authorities on this case, the largest cocaine seizure in the county in recent memory, and a reminder to the Sheriff that his office’s work is never done.

"The desire and demand for drugs in the United States is not decreasing," said the Sheriff.

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