Man arrested for stealing one of 15 bricks of cocaine washed up on Mississippi beach
The man is currently being held on a $150,000 bond
A Mississippi man has been arrested after attempting to steal one of 15 bricks of cocaine that landed on the shores of a beach in Biloxi in over the weekend.
Police are currently investigating how the parcels washed ashore and where they came from. Biloxi police captain Milton Houseman revealed that “it has happened before”, and remembers the white bricks washing up several times in the past.
37-year-old Joey Lee Ware was arrested after attempting to smuggle one of the 15 bricks - valued at $1 million - home with him. Ware was charged with aggravated trafficking of controlled substances and is now being held on a $150,000 bond.
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The Mississippi man was found with a brick and a half of cocaine covered with a Dior label, which appeared on each of the blocks found around Mississippi over the weekend.
Biloxi police connected 15 parcels at different locations including Biloxi’s Deer Island and Schooner Pier. The packages were found during a beach clean-up by volunteers.
“While South Florida and the Keys are the most common locations for drugs to wash up, other coastal communities could see similar occurrences,” said Robert Brisley, spokesperson for US Customs and Border Patrol, after the incident.
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The Department of Marine Resources and the Mississippi Bureau of Narcotics are also now involved in the investigation to discover where the bricks came from, according to WLOX.
Mississippi Bureau of Narcotics director Steven Maxwell stated: “There was likely to be a larger amount of drugs that either fell off a vessel or they were intentionally dropped off to be picked up by someone else or another group of individuals.”
Gemma Ross is Mixmag's Editorial Assistant, follow her on Twitter