Tampa Mayor Jane Castor hauls in package of 70lbs of cocaine - worth $1.1 million - while fishing in the Florida Keys with her family

The mayor of Tampa has described a fishing trip with her family off the Florida Keys that resulted in a surprising catch: a 70-pound pack of cocaine.

Jane Castor was fishing for mahi-mahi with her brother Kelly, 61; her son, and his girlfriend, at the end of July.

The 62-year-old said she had been making the annual fishing trip to the Keys for almost a decade.

Castor spent 31 years in the Tampa police department, rising to become chief before retiring in 2015, and becoming mayor in 2019.

She said that her brother spotted the black plastic package, around the size of a microwave, bobbing in the water.

Castor knew immediately it was cocaine.

Jane Castor is seen last year watching the Tampa Bay Buccaneers training. At the end of July she went fishing in the Florida Keys, and reeled in a surprising catch

Castor found the microwave-sized bundle bobbing off the coast near Marathon

They hauled the package onto the boat, and headed for the dock near the city of Marathon, on Middle Key - calling the local sheriffs as they went.

On arrival they were met by Monroe County sheriff's deputies, and then two federal agents who confiscated the haul.

Walter Slosar, chief patrol agent with the Border Patrol's Miami sector, posted a picture of the haul on Twitter, revealing 25 bricks of cocaine, each decorated with a blue and purple butterfly.

The drugs were worth $1.1 million, and the haul was the fifth that month.

The previous weekend a person in a boat found a three-pound bale of marijuana off Islamorada in the Upper Keys.

Earlier that month, boaters discovered 87 pounds of hashish off the coast of Marathon.

The same day, another spotted 62 pounds of cocaine wrapped in bricks decorated with pictures of the Eiffel Tower.

An 8-pound bale of marijuana was found the day before, floating about 13 miles northwest of Big Pine Key in the Lower Keys.

The Border Patrol in Miami shared a photo of the package which Castor fished out of the water

And the discoveries kept on coming: in early August, a person found a brick of cocaine weighing 2.7 pounds.

The Florida Keys have long been a popular hub for drug smuggling, given their proximity to Latin America.

The latest Drugs Enforcement Agency report, from 2022, states that the area 'is a key U.S. drug trafficking and money laundering region.'

'Its geographical nexus to the Americas, the Caribbean nations, and the Bahamas, along with its multicultural backdrop, make it a preferred portal for illicit drugs entering the U.S. to supply local, state, and other U.S. drug markets.'

Cocaine seized in the South Florida area accounts for 19 percent of the U.S. total.