Key Largo landscapers find eight waterlogged marijuana bundles in mangroves

Landscapers trimming mangroves in a Key Largo neighborhood found eight small packages of apparent marijuana on Thursday, a discovery that turned ordinary yard work into a narcotics case off Little Angelfish Creek Channel.

The Monroe County Sheriff’s Office said the bundles looked waterlogged and may have been in the area for some time. NBC Miami reported that a passerby found the packages in the mangroves off Little Angelfish Creek Channel, and a photo released by the sheriff’s office showed the bundles marked with a bird logo.

The find fits a familiar Keys pattern, where currents, tides and roadside vegetation can leave suspicious packages tucked into mangrove edges instead of turning up in a traffic stop or a search warrant case. Monroe County stretches across roughly 125 miles of islands tied together by U.S. 1 and 42 bridges, and the sheriff’s office handles law enforcement across that entire chain from Key Largo to Key West.

Mangroves make those discoveries especially notable because they are not just thick coastal brush. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service says mangrove habitats in the Florida Keys provide habitat for many species and serve as important nursery areas for fish. The National Park Service says mangroves also help protect coastlines from waves and storms, while remaining vulnerable to pollution and sea-level rise.

Key Largo has seen similar finds before. A February 2 report said a volunteer cleaning debris along East Beach Road at Harry Harris Park found a suspected cocaine package lodged in the mangroves. In October, another Local 10 report said more than 150 pounds of marijuana and other materials were discovered near Key Largo along U.S. 1, underscoring how often the Upper Keys turn up in drug-related shoreline discoveries.

Sheriff Rick Ramsay, who graduated from the Florida Keys Institute of Criminal Justice in 1987 and became sheriff in 2012, leads the agency that would handle any testing, evidence collection and follow-up tied to the bundles. In a place where mangroves line neighborhoods, canals and roadside edges, even a routine trimming job can uncover something that belongs to a much larger investigation.