Fisherman reels in 60 pounds of cocaine

Dec. 31 (UPI) -- Authorities in Florida said a fisherman reeled in a package that turned out to be filled with up to 60 pounds of suspected cocaine.

The Monroe County Sheriff's Office said a fisherman was returning to Islamorada in the Florida Keys when he spotted a bale under a dock Saturday morning.

The fisherman used a gaff and a net to pull the package into his boat and he determined it was filled with an unidentified white powder.

Sheriff's deputies and U.S. Border Patrol investigators responded and discovered the bale contained 25 plastic-wrapped packages of what is believed to be cocaine.

The packages were turned over to federal authorities.

"This happens fairly regularly, about once or twice every year," sheriff's office spokesman Adam Linhardt told CNN. "We live in the part of the country where it washes up on the Florida Keys."