No arrests have been made after a boat with more than $4.3 million worth of marijuana washed ashore near Oceanside over the weekend, U.S. Border Patrol said Tuesday.
The small motorboat was loaded with more than 1,000 pounds-worth of marijuana when it washed onto the beach near Ocean Street, at the border between Carlsbad and Oceanside around 6:30 a.m, the Oceanside Police Department said.
A witness told law enforcement that two people got off the boat and ran south along the shoreline, border patrol said. The suspects have not been located.
NBC 7 spoke to Zachary Boyer who said he was just hanging out at the beach when he noticed a boat on the shore.
"I noticed a few cops around," Boyer said. "Then when they started unloading the bundles of marijuana, we knew it was something different."
Agents found the marijuana bundles hidden inside the cabin of the vessel. In all, the seized drugs had an estimated street value of $4,319,280, the agency said.
"They were throwing bundle after bundle of marijuana off the boat," Boyer said.
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The ship's cargo was packed into a bags and was hauled off the beach in a pickup truck. The boat was removed from the beach around 2 p.m.
Border Patrol agents were working in cunjunction with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security in the investigation.
"I was really surprised to see a drug smuggling boat here in Carlsbad," Boyer said.
No other information was available.
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