MARATHON, Fla. — A 32-year-old mariner from Lithuania was arrested after a large amount of cocaine was found in his sailboat, a Facebook post from the Monroe County Sheriff's Office explains.
Matas Vezauskas was charged with trafficking cocaine.
“I want to thank our Special Operations Unit Detectives and K9 Mako as well as our federal law enforcement partners for their hard work in getting these dangerous drugs off our streets,” Sheriff Rick Ramsay said in a statement.
The sheriff's office lent a helping hand to federal law enforcement officers during the search of Vezauskas' sailboat on Monday at Burdines Waterfront Marina in Marathon. Sixty-four bricks of cocaine, coming out to 75.8 kilograms or 167 pounds, were seized from the boat.
The 32-year-old was the only person on the boat, and he reportedly sailed from another country without checking in with the U.S. Border Protection and Customs after arriving.
After federal authorities turned the case over to the sheriff's office for further investigation, Vezauskas was later arrested.
Multiple agencies helped in the case, including the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, FBI, U.S. Border Patrol, as well as U.S. Customs and Border Protection.
