A LIFEGUARD at Australia's most iconic beach has found a kilogram of cocaine floating out to sea, the latest discovery in a massive haul deposited along the coast between Newcastle and Sydney since before Christmas.
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A Bondi lifeguard patrolling the surf on New Year's Day found a kilogram brick floating about one kilometre off North Bondi Beach and handed the drugs into police.
That discovery, and another kilogram package found at North Steyne at Manly on Wednesday, takes the total to more than 170 kilograms washed up at beaches along the east coast since December 23.
One police theory is that the drugs were attached to a cargo ship bound for Australia from South America but the shipment was knocked loose by a tropical cyclone in North Queensland.
And as the investigation of the origins of the drugs continues, police believe the cocaine bricks could continue to wash up along the coast for months.
Police confirmed swimmers made the discovery about 5.30pm and police photographs later showed the large bag behind the pool's iconic turquoise wall.
Local police were first called to Magenta on the state's Central Coast on December 22, after a member of the public found a barnacle-covered item washed up on the beach.
It was seized for testing and police allege it contained 39 sealed packs of cocaine, weighing about one kilogram each.
Beachgoers alerted police again on Christmas Eve after discovering another seven individually wrapped packages at Magenta Beach, Pelican Beach, Blacksmith Beach, Avoca Beach, Pantaloon Bay and North Steyne Beach.
The packages were handed in to local police, which were believed to contain a further seven kilograms of cocaine.
No packages were reportedly found on Christmas Day, but the reprieve didn't last.
About 11am on Boxing Day, a fisherman allegedly found a blue barrel with 39 individually wrapped one-kilogram bricks of cocaine at Barrenjoey Headland off the Northern Beaches.
Marine Area Command was tasked to respond.
Every report was investigated initially by local police and all packages were taken for forensic examination before it was referred to the State Crime Command.
Police confirmed on Friday that the total cocaine discovered since December 22 had risen to about 170 kilograms and the State Crime Command was continuing to investigate the packages.
"As inquiries continue, detectives are working closely with local police and specialist resources such as PolAir and Marine Area Command, as well as Australian Border Force and Surf Life Saving NSW, to seize any outstanding packages and determine their origin," a police spokeswoman said.
And police have warned people not to launch their own search for the drugs, after two people suspected of looking for the packages had to be rescued by water police at Pittwater last week.
"If someone is caught in possession of one of these bricks, it's a large commercial quantity and that carries 25 years to life imprisonment, so it's a significant penalty," Detective Chief Inspector Weinstein told ABC News. "That amount of drug in possession of a person, if someone was to ingest part of that, they could overdose and die. "We don't know what the purity of that is just yet, we don't know what is mixed in with that, there's a whole range of unknowns."
