Another load of drugs washes onto Galveston beaches this week

The 66 pounds of cocaine found Monday on a Galveston beach would sell for more than $3.5 million in small increments on the street. Officials said it was the 6th bundle of drugs washed up this week. The dolphin stamp indicates ownership of the Gulf Cartel. less The 66 pounds of cocaine found Monday on a Galveston beach would sell for more than $3.5 million in small increments on the street. Officials said it was the 6th bundle of drugs washed up this week. The ... more Image 1 of / 39 Caption Close Another load of drugs washes onto Galveston beaches this week 1 / 39 Back to Gallery

A suspicious package that washed ashore in Galveston turned out to be something police keep finding on the beach this week: drugs.

The 66 pounds of cocaine Galveston police found Monday could sell for more than $3.5 million on the streets — and it's the sixth bundle of narcotics found on the beach this week.

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"It's not unlikely to see one [package of drugs wash ashore] each month, or one each couple of months," said Sgt. Joshua Schirard with the Galveston Police Department. "Six in a week is obviously elevated."

Police have a good idea why drugs would turn up on beaches, but less so why so many would turn up in the past several days.

Schirard said drug cartels sometimes sink their shipments underwater and mark them with a buoy so they can be picked up by another crew. Sometimes a package of drugs can become dislodged a float away, eventually to the beach.

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Otherwise, Schirard said, cartel traffickers may throw their loads overboard when they notice approaching Coast Guard or other law enforcement.

But to explain the high volume of drugs washed ashore this week, Schirard could only speculate. He said the large number of boats stationed off shore, waiting for access to the Houston Ship Channel, which has been restricted by heavy rain, have been subject to increased searches by the Coast Guard or Customs and Border Protection.

"Narcotics get transported through the Gulf and into the Houston shipping channel pretty regularly," he said.

Of the bundles of narcotics recovered on Galveston beaches this week, four contained marijuana and two contained cocaine. The cocaine found Monday was stamped with a dolphin, indicating they belonged to the Gulf Cartel.