on air now
NOW PLAYING
The Drive With Roland Gaspar
up next
Up Next
Kea Zawadi
on air now
NOW PLAYING
The Drive With Roland Gaspar
up next
Up Next
Kea Zawadi
 

Cocaine washes up near mystery Trinidad shipwreck

This handout satellite image taken and released by Maxar Technologies on February 14, 2024 shows an overview of a capsized barge and oil spill off the coast of Trinidad and Tobago

Satellite image ©2024 Maxar Technologies AFP


A black plastic bag containing more than a kilogram of cocaine has washed up on a beach near the spot where a mysterious barge capsized, causing an oil spill off the island nation of Trinidad and Tobago.

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 appeared to have been bound for Guyana.

The oil spill has affected some 15 kilometres of Tobago's coastline, and the clean-up is still underway.