Do you love a good treasure hunt? Then you might want to slap on your swimmers, because there’s an abandoned boat off the coast of Australia with a almost $50 million in cocaine aboard.*
Yes, it might sound like the plot to Scarface 2, but as The Australian notes, this shipwreck is very real, and very much sought after by those in the law enforcement game.
The drugs in question were first discovered by a fisherman in Papua New Guinea, who noticed some oddities on the beach near the Solomon Sea. After digging in the sand, he came across eleven bags full of cocaine which were ostensibly set to hit the streets in no time at all.
Of course, he took them bags home on Budi Budi Island (700km east of Port Moresby), where a number of angry drug traffickers soon showed up, wondering just where their drugs were.
Following an extensive chase by the Papa New Guinean navy and Aussie air surveillance, police eventually captured the smugglers. However, when it came time to search their trawler, police discovered it had been filled with oil and fuel in the engine room in an attempt to booby-trap the vessel.
“Our men couldn’t get into the interior,” explained regional PNG chief inspector George Bayagau. “There was diesel poured inside and there was grease all over and it made it very, very difficult.”
After finding out the trawler was a bit too heavy to tow away, law enforcement were forced to abandon it at sea, complete with the cocaine still aboard.
“All efforts were made to salvage the boat, but it was impossible,” explained Mr Bayagau.
While the six men captured by police are set to face drug charges next week, the boat remains stranded on a remote island off the coast of Papua New Guinea.
Disclaimer: Don’t actually go chase the mythical cocaine boat down. Not only could your safety be at risk, but there’s legal ramifications to consider as well.
Check out The Lonely Island’s ‘I’m On A Boat’:
