Cocaine worth $15 million found by divers at the bottom of the Baltic Sea

Divers in Poland discovered more than 220 pounds of cocaine on the bottom of the Baltic Sea, the nation’s border guard said on Tuesday, marking the latest unusual location that drugs have been found in Europe.

Officers with the Border Guard Maritime Unit located the cocaine on the seabed in the Gulf of Gdansk in northern Poland, officials said in a news release.  Seven people were detained and the border guard said it had “dismantled an organized crime group involved in smuggling significant amounts of drugs.”

Authorities released several images of the operation and said the seized drugs had an estimated street value of $15 million. A video released by the border guard shows divers locating the alleged drugs on the seabed as well footage of armed officers making multiple arrests at various locations.

After the drugs were seized from the Baltic Sea, officials said they were ultimately able to track down the suspects, which led to the discovery of another large quantity of drugs. The seven people detained face up to 20 years in prison if convicted, authorities said.

The discovery stemmed from a joint operation by the Polish border guard, Europol and the DEA to protect critical underwater infrastructure in the region, authorities said. In December, NATO announced that it would boost patrols in the Baltic Sea after several reported incidents of underwater sabotage.

Cocaine is routinely seized at sea, but usually from drug trafficking vessels like “narco subs” in the Pacific and Caribbean.

The operation in Poland marks the latest incident of European authorities discovering cocaine in unusual places in recent months. Just last week, authorities in Luxembourg seized almost a ton of cocaine hidden in a stone crusher. In December, authorities in Spain released video showing the discovery of seven tons of cocaine buried underneath a farm. A few weeks before that, police in Spain seized a record haul of cocaine that was concealed in a shipment of bananas from Ecuador.

Across the globe, would-be drug smugglers have hidden cocaine in everything from car mufflers and surfboards to sugar and jalapeno peppers.

Cocaine has been found in the ocean and along coastlines many times before — especially in Florida. Last August, Hurricane Debby blew 25 packages of cocaine onto a beach in the Florida Keys.  A few weeks later, 16 bricks of suspected cocaine was found by tourists on a beach in the same region.

In June 2024, boaters off the coast of Florida found 65 pounds of cocaine floating in the ocean, and earlier that month, divers found 25 kilograms of cocaine about 100 feet underwater off Key West.