Tampa mayor Jane Castor was fishing off the Florida Keys with her family when she reeled in something unexpected – 70 pounds of cocaine.
While out on the boat in late July, Castor’s brother saw what he thought was debris in the water, WTVT-TV in Tampa reported.
“Thought it was shade as opposed to something shady, right?” Castor told the station this week.
‘That would be a bail of cocaine’
The Castor family hauled the heavy package onto the boat and discovered a split in the wrapping that revealed individual packages, according to the Tampa Bay Times.
“Closer we got, I was like, ‘Oh, that would be a bail of cocaine,'” Castor told WTVT.
Castor later told the Tampa Bay Times that she saved the location of the discovery on her watch and headed back to the family’s vacation rental. When she got cell service again, Castor called the Monroe County Sheriff’s Office.
The family lugged the packages onto the dock and waited for them to arrive.
Walter Slosar, chief patrol agent with the Border Patrol’s Miami sector, posted a picture of the cocaine on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter. Slosar said the drugs have an estimated street value of $1.1 million.
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Law enforcement background
Perhaps it shouldn’t come as a surprise that the mayor made a drug bust of sorts.
Before her current job, Castor spent 31 years with the Tampa Police Department. She was the city’s first female police chief when she got the job in October 2009, according to the mayor’s website.
Castor served in that role for six years and spent about eight years working in narcotics with the department, according to the Tampa Bay Times.
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