-- Local law enforcement officials confirmed that two one-kilo packages of cocaine have washed ashore near Gulf Shores over the past eight days.

Sgt. Jason Woodruff with the Gulf Shores Police Department said two couples found the first package on the beach near the Gulf State Park Pavilion last Monday, Sept. 16. Woodruff said the couples were out for a morning walk on the beach when they noticed the package and alerted local law enforcement.

Gulf Shores Police confirmed that the package contained cocaine and alerted federal authorities.

A second package, similar but not identical to the first, washed up six days later near the Morgantown subdivision off Fort Morgan Road on Saturday.

Major Anthony Lowery with the Baldwin County Sheriff's Office said that a sample was sent to the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement to determine whether the two packages came from the same source.

Woodruff said the matter remains under investigation, but that authorities didn't have much to go on.

"There's a lot of theories, and we'd like to know the story behind it, but that's a very remote chance that we'll ever hear it," Woodruff said.