MIAMI: Hurricane Debby landed in Florida Monday bringing high winds, pouring rain - and 25 tightly wrapped packages of cocaine worth more than US$1 million.

Debby, which hit the state's northern Big Bend region as a Category One hurricane but has since been downgraded to a tropical storm, washed the trove of drugs ashore along Florida's southernmost tip.

"Hurricane Debby blew 25 packages of cocaine (70 lbs.) onto a beach in the Florida Keys," US Border Patrol acting chief patrol Agent Samuel Briggs II wrote on X.

The load of drugs, which Briggs reported was valued at more than US$1 million, was discovered by a good Samaritan who contacted the authorities.

In July of 2023, the mayor of Tampa, Florida similarly discovered 70 pounds (31.7 kilogrammes) of cocaine that had been washed ashore in the Florida Keys, while enjoying a vacation day.

In addition to bringing cocaine, Debby has killed four people, knocked out power for hundreds of thousands of people, and could produce life-threatening storm surges as well as catastrophic flooding.

The Keys, a string of islands stretching off the state's southern tip, are located in close proximity to a number of Caribbean countries that serve as a transit hub for cocaine being trafficked from South America to Europe and North America, including into Florida.

 - AFP