Updated 11:18 PM ET, Wed December 16, 2020
This December 15, 2020 photo shows a box filled with 2.2-pound (1-kg) bricks of cocaine found on a boat that washed up in the Marshall Islands. (CNN)A small, unassuming boat washed up on a remote island in the Pacific last week carrying no passengers but loaded with around 1,430 pounds (649 kg) of cocaine.
The 18-foot (5.4-meter) fiberglass vessel was discovered on a beach at Ailuk Atoll in the Marshall Islands, a chain of coral atolls and volcanic islands between the Philippines and Hawaii.
The cocaine came sealed and wrapped in blocks, according to the Marshall Islands police, who then collected and destroyed most of the packages by burning them in an incinerator. Photos of the blocks show stained, yellowing plastic, stamped with a red logo that bears the letters KW.
1 Marshall Islands Police Captain Eric Jorban, (left), empties one-kilo packages of cocaine into an incinerator in Majuro in the Marshall Islands.
MAJURO, Marshall Islands: Marshall Islands police have found the Pacific nation s largest-ever haul of cocaine in an abandoned boat that washed up on a remote atoll after drifting on the high seas, potentially for years.
Attorney General Richard Hickson said the 5.5-metre fibreglass vessel was found at Ailuk atoll last week with 649kg of cocaine hidden in a compartment beneath the deck.
Hickson said the vessel most likely drifted across the Pacific from Central or South America. It could have been drifting for a year or two, he said.
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Giff Johnson, Editor, Marshall Islands Journal / RNZ Pacific correspondent
Marshall Islands police have destroyed over 635 kilogrammes of cocaine after the cache of drugs drifted into a remote atoll.
Marshall Islands Police Captain Eric Jorban, left, empties a bag of one-kilo packages of cocaine into an incinerator
Photo: RNZ Pacific / Giff Johnson
Police said the discovery last week was the largest volume of cocaine to ever wash into the Marshall Islands, which has seen hundreds of kilos of cocaine found near multiple islands over the past two decades. The drug haul has an estimated street value of over $US80 million. A local resident on Ailuk discovered a boat with 649 one-kilogram bricks of cocaine, said Attorney General Richard Hickson, who praised community members at Ailuk for immediately notifying law enforcement about the drug discovery.