A Mississippi man named Joey Lee Ware has been arrested and charged after allegedly trying to take one of 15 cocaine bricks that washed ashore on a local beach.
According to reports, Biloxi police arrested Ware on Aug. 15 for allegedly trying to pocket some of the 15 cocaine bricks that washed ashore on Aug. 13. The Mississippi man was charged with aggravated trafficking of controlled substances after authorities found him with a brick and a half of coke labeled “Dior”–a label police said they’ve seen on other packages that surfaced around the city.
“One-and-a-half was actually discovered by a citizen, and this is the important part. If you discover it, you should call us. He instead decided to do other things with it, and he was arrested and charged with aggravated trafficking,” Biloxi Police Capt. Thomas Goldsworthy said about Ware, who’s currently being held on a $150,000 bond.
Several people have found suspicious packages in Biloxi at Deer Island and Schooner Pier, news reports said. Goldsworthy additionally confirmed that volunteers for the Keesler Air Force Base discovered about eight of them while they were conducting a beach cleanup. The volunteers were reportedly doing the cleanup along a beach near White Avenue when they found the eight bricks, and, as they continued to search through the area, they spotted three more.
“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,” Mississippi Bureau of Narcotics Director Steven Maxwell said. He added that they were marked with the label “Dior.”
Police said that after conducting a field test, the department declared the substance as cocaine. The drugs have been valued at $1 million and are set to be destroyed.
Homeland Security Investigations, the Mississippi Department of Marine Resources, the Mississippi Bureau of Narcotics, the DEA, and the Customs Border Patrol have since been contacted to conduct an investigation with the Biloxi Police Department. Authorities urge anyone who comes across more cocaine bricks in the area to call them immediately.
