A boat carrying over a thousand pounds of cocaine and little else washed up on the Marshall Islands, giving the nation its biggest ever drug bust.
According to officials, the boat ran aground on Ailuk atoll, a remote island in the Pacific nation. Attorney General Richard Hickson spoke with CBS News and said the 18-foot vessel was carrying 1,430 pounds of cocaine in a hidden compartment. The bricks of cocaine were incinerated by police, with the containers and wrappers being kept for analysis.
Because of where the Marshall Islands sit in the Pacific Ocean, currents frequently wash boats and other objects on to the islands after months or years at sea. Investigators believe that is what happened with this boat.
"It could have been drifting for a year or two," Hickson said of the boat, which he believed originated in Central or South America.
The only clue to its origin comes in the wrappers used to hold the bricks of cocaine. They were marked with the letters "KW." Two of the bricks have been sent to the American DEA for analysis. The prevailing theory is that the boat was either abandoned for fear of being arrested or lost in a storm and not that those on board had an incredible idea for a restaurant that couldn't wait for them to get to land.
It's not the first time that drugs have washed ashore in Marshall Islands. In fact, another drug shipment has appeared on the very same remote atoll in Aulik, but authorities note that the massive amount found on this boat is far larger than any they've seen.
