Friday, July 13, 2007

Not Quite A Message In A Bottle, Is It?

Marshall Islands police are investigating reports up to $A60 million worth of cocaine was aboard a boat found washed up on a remote atoll in the impoverished nation.

Major Wedmond Langrine from the Republic of Marshall Islands Police said officers were on their way to the Ailinglaplap Atoll to confirm the find.

Reports suggest 12 to 60 kilograms of cocaine was aboard a twin-engine speedboat found abandoned on the atoll.
This report comes to us from Australia's The Age, and the "$A60 million" means $60 million Australian dollars, a measly $52 million American.

But then again, the scenery must count for something.
Langrine said police were alerted by islanders who located the drugs aboard the vessel.

"They called us to tell us via radio. They said they they had found it on the island, in a small speedboat trapped alongside the island on a rip," Langrine said.

According to Radio New Zealand islanders wanted to salvage the boat but could not lift it because of its weight, so they removed the floorboards to make it easier to bail it out.

Underneath the floor they found plastic rubbish bags filled with bundles of cocaine.
You might wonder why somebody who found millions of dollars worth of cocaine would call the police!

It may be a question of experience.
In March 2004 a boat loaded with cocaine washed up on an island in the Marshall Islands.

On that occasion a 57-year-old grandmother who found the drugs was later jailed after evidence she was selling 20 kilograms of the drugs to people on nearby Kwajalein Atoll where there is a US Army base.