Daisy Phillipson
A walker who went for a casual stroll on a Welsh beach was shocked when they came across what appeared to be £90 million worth of 'pure cocaine' washed ashore.
The person – who chose to remain anonymous – had been walking along the Tan-y-Bwlch seaside near Aberystwyth in west Wales when they uncovered the haul.
Sounding like something straight out of a gangster movie, upon closer inspection they noticed that, rather than a washed up sea animal, it was pile of black bags all attached together with empty plastic bottles used as floating devices.
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Although they recognised what it was 'straight away', a fellow walker decided to call the police just to be sure.
Speaking to the Daily Mail, they said: "I was out for my early morning walk when I saw something on the beach.
"I was intrigued and walked up to it and knew what it was almost straight away.
"An old lady called the police and they came around half an hour later. They cut open a bag and it looked like pure cocaine.
"They dragged it off the beach and took it away."
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Another detail that gave a clue as to the cargo inside was the fact that the suspected cocaine blocks were labelled with the fashion brand 'Dior'.
As pointed out by the publication, the same label was found on cocaine hauls that washed up in the Gulf of Mexico and Australia over the past 18 months.
Dyfed-Powys Police has since responded to the incident, saying an investigation is underway.
In a statement shared with LADbible, a spokesperson said: "Dyfed-Powys Police is investigating the discovery of a significant quantity of what is thought to be cocaine, spotted along the Ceredigion coast this weekend.
"Enquiries are being undertaken to establish how such an unusually large amount of the controlled drug came to wash up on the Welsh shore, following recent storms.
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"The precise quantity is still being established and at this time no one has been arrested in relation to this matter.
"Officers have thanked those who found the packages and their sensible actions in reporting the matter immediately."
In this case, the discoverers did the right thing and called authorities – as tempting as it might be to keep a brick and make a fast bit of cash, you could end up 1) getting arrested (like this guy did) or 2) the target of an international drug trafficking syndicate.
As for the man who fell into the former camp, he was arrested in August after attempting to steal one of the Dior-labelled bricks that washed ashore on the Gulf of Mexico.
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Biloxi Police Department Captain Thomas Goldsworthy urged locals to not do the same if they come across any more of the mysterious drug bundles – and the same applies to anyone who finds mysterious packages on the beach.
"One and a half [bricks] was actually discovered by a citizen, and this is the important part," he said.
"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."
Lesson learned (the hard way).