VERO BEACH — Rather than discovering sea shells or a message in a bottle, lifeguards found a brick of cocaine last week, police said.

The package, which would have had a street value of about $35,000, washed up at Humiston Beach Park Friday, Vero Beach Police Lt. Matt Harrelson said. It was wrapped in plastic.

Police said they passed the cocaine onto Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Officers also searched the beaches in case other bricks had washed up, Harrelson said.

The brick found at the beach likely became loose from a drug boat transporting cocaine, police said. Markings on the packet match bricks of cocaine recovered elsewhere in Florida recently, Harrelson said.

"(Drug cartels) would see it as the cost of doing business," Harrelson said about their loss of the drugs. "There's a lot more cocaine on the streets."

Packages of cocaine and marijuana occasionally wash up on the beaches. Anyone who discovers such packages should not handle them, Harrelson said, because they may be laced with a harmful substance. Instead, call 911 and notify authorities of its location.

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Stancil is a breaking news reporter for FLORIDA TODAY and TCPalm.

Contact Stancil at 321-242-3662 or 321-987-7179

or lamaur.stancil@tcpalm.com.

Twitter: @TCPalmLStancil