Florida Fishermen Arrested For Hauling Cocaine Bricks Instead Of Catch

Florida fishermen are now hauling up bricks of cocaine instead of fish. These blocks drop straight from drug smugglers into the Gulf waters. Many locals keep the narcotics for themselves and risk prison time to profit. In August, three men faced sentences up to ten years after running a massive trafficking ring in the Keys. John Robert Strama Jr, Pedro Luis Lugo Jr, and Elvis Lazaro Ruiz were among twenty-seven people charged between 2020 and 2023. Strama led the group and relied on finding square groupers at sea. He recovered dozens of bricks using his knowledge of local waterways before distributing them to co-conspirators.

Charter boat captain Bradford Picariello was arrested in January for selling drugs. He pleaded not guilty in September and faces ten years to life if convicted. Police say he sold a kilo for $10,000 to an undercover detective who brought a cooler to look like fishing gear. He allegedly told the officer he had one hundred pounds on board. His arrest led agents to find twenty-three kilos of cocaine. Picariello's attorney Joseph Rosenbaum says they will fight these charges by claiming every old fisherman has a sterling reputation.

Monroe County Sheriff Rick Ramsay says someone brings another brick to his office weekly. Many people find them while fishing offshore, yet only half return with the contraband. He suspects the rest heads straight for Miami because it is a lot of money. A single kilo can be worth $20,000 and greed drives people to get rich quick. Authorities believe the drugs come from the Caribbean, Colombia, or southern Bahamas. Symbols like numbers or photos mark the packages to identify the intended recipient. Last year his office took in forty to fifty kilos before passing them to federal authorities.

The county has seen a significant rise in recent years as border security tightened at the US-Mexico line. Sheriff Ramsay noted that when the southwest border shut down, more dope floated up through the waterways. Unlike decades ago when hundreds of kilos washed ashore, today fifty to one hundred kilos typically arrive. Smugglers changed tactics and now use hidden compartments in sailboats instead of high-speed boats. Back in the 1970s these bricks mostly contained marijuana rather than cocaine.

Local Historian Brad Bertelli told the Daily Mail that cocaine took over as the dominant drug during the 1980s. For many local fishermen, this became their side gig. Fishermen returned to shore with more than just their daily catch of fish. The area earned a notorious reputation and now hosts a popular restaurant named after this dark phenomenon. Many people knew exactly what was going on back then. Places like the Everglades and the Keys were infamous hotspots for these operations, Bertelli said. It became a way to make a living. It was risky business, but it brought in good money. Sometimes square groupers moved between boats directly. Other times smugglers offloaded them if they feared federal authorities were nearby. Sea Oats Beach on Islamorada saw plenty of square groupers wash ashore during that era. This activity lent the location the nickname Bale Beach, Bertelli said. A bale is simply another term for the drug packages. In 2024, Hurricane Debby tore through the region and left behind drugs worth $1.6 million on the island shores, ABC 7 reported. One individual found twenty-five packages of cocaine totaling $1 million in value. Just a week later, boaters discovered a massive fifty-six-pound batch near Everglades City that was worth $625,000. The frequency of finding these square groupers became so common that the islands have officially embraced their reputation. A restaurant now carries the name of a square grouper and stands as one of the most popular spots in the Keys, Bertelli said. It is definitely an embraced culture for sure, he added. The Daily Mail has reached out to Rosenbaum for comment on these developments.