Famous Fisherman Catches Kilo of Cocaine

When it comes to doing a little deep-sea fishing in the mysterious Atlantic Ocean, there is always a relatively good chance that an angler could reel in anything from miscellaneous body parts gnawed off by man-eating sharks to a wealth of other odd discoveries, including lost shipments of the devil’s dandruff, otherwise known as cocaine.

That is exactly what famed shark fisherman Mark “the Shark” Quartiano believes he may have caught earlier this week while leading a boatload of tourists on a fishing expedition just off the coast of Miami—a nicely packaged kilo of that South American go-go dust.

Local medial reports indicate that Quartiano and several students from the University of Miami were about two miles off the coast when they spotted something bizarre floating in the water. It wasn’t until after the boat circled the package a few times that the passengers began to speculate that it was part of a shipment of dope from South America originally on course to be distributed in the United States.

It was around this time when a member of the crew grabbed a net in an attempt to pull the elusive package onboard.

In a video captured of the affair, Quartiano can be heard saying, “Nothing to see here,” while the bundle is being scooped out of the water and then made available for a series of photo opportunities.

“Lo and behold, it was one of those square grouper,” he told WPLG.

Quartiano, who has reportedly led fishing expeditions for a number of Hollywood stars, including Robert De Niro, told reporters that while it is not unusual for him to find marijuana floating around in the ocean, this is the first time in his 40 years at sea that he has ever come across hard drugs.

“I’ve found marijuana, but never cocaine like this,” he told the Miami New Times, adding that neither he nor anyone else on the boat actually opened the package to see what was inside.

“One of my friends said—he was an old smuggler back in the day—that it could be cash, lots of cash. So I don’t know, we’ll have to see, but if it’s cash, it belongs to me,” Quartiano said.

So, rather than bust into the package and quite possibly turn the fishing trip into a high speed representation of the Miami drug culture, the crew decided to turn it over the U.S. Coast Guard for further investigation.

While we can certainly appreciate Quartiano’s caution in traveling around in the ocean with potentially enough cocaine to get him sent to prison for a long time, we would still like to know what he has been doing with all of the marijuana he claims to have found at sea throughout the years.

We wouldn’t turn it over to the Coast Guard, that’s for sure!

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