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Bag of cocaine washes up near mystery Trinidad shipwreck / Photo: © Asamblea de Tobago/AFP
Bag of cocaine washes up near mystery Trinidad shipwreck
A black plastic bag containing more than a kilogram (2.2 pounds) of cocaine has washed up on a beach near the spot where a mysterious barge capsized and spilled oil off the island nation of Trinidad and Tobago, authorities said Monday.
The cocaine, valued at $75,000, was found "washed ashore" at Cove Estate on Tobago, police said in a statement.
Authorities did not link the drug find to the capsized vessel, which is lodged on a reef some 150 meters (nearly 500 feet) from Cove Estate.
Intrigue surrounds the vessel which capsized on February 7 in waters off the Caribbean island, having made no emergency calls and with no sign of any crew.
As a trail of oil leaked into the ocean at the height of the tourist season, authorities last week determined at least two vessels -- the barge and a tugboat -- had been involved in the accident.
The national security ministry said the barge had been tugged from Panama, and appears to have been bound for Guyana.
The oil spill has affected some 15 kilometres (nearly 10 miles) of Tobago's coastline, and the clean-up is still underway.
F. Schulze--BTZ
