A "ghost ship" with no passengers aboard—but packed with 649 kilos of cocaine—washed up on Ailuk Atoll in the Marshall Islands last week. The Marshall Islands lie between Hawaii and the Philippines and the remote Ailuk Atoll has a population of around 400 people. While numerous drug hauls have turned up Marshall Islands shores, this was by far the largest, with a retail value exceeding US$20 million. From IOL:
(Attorney General Richard Hickson) said the vessel most likely drifted across the Pacific from Central or South America. "It could have been drifting for a year or two," he said.
Police said the drugs, which were in one-kilogram packages marked with the letters "KW", were incinerated on Tuesday, aside from two packs that will be given to the US Drug Enforcement Agency for analysis.
