There have been some troubled waters around Galveston Island this week as authorities uncovered a million-dollar cocaine stash and a vintage bomb within just days of one another.
On Monday, Coast Guard officers stormed an oil tanker 70 miles off the Galveston coast after crew members reported a suspicious package hidden aboard the ship. Authorities found more than 85 pounds of cocaine buried within the 900-foot vessel dubbed the Godavari Spirit.
Total street value? Roughly $1.13 million, according to a statement released by the Coast Guard.
In a matter of days, Galveston authorities discovered a secret million-dollar stash of cocaine and a vintage World War II bomb.
Action shifted closer to shore by Wednesday, when a bomb squad roped off a section of the Kemah Boardwalk after a mysterious metal device was discovered floating in a nearby marina.
"It looked similar to a bomb," Kemah emergency management coordinator Bill Kerber told the Houston Chronicle. "The water was murky and we weren't really sure what we were dealing with."
Police divers pulled a long rusted object out of the rising tide, initially labeling it a "military training device."
On Thursday, however, area bomb squad officials revealed that the 42-inch piece of debris was very much a "real bomb" and still considered dangerous . . . albeit to a lesser degree, considering that the original fuse was water-logged for more than half a century.
"The bomb techs feel very strongly that it is from the WWII era," read a statement from the Texas City Bomb Squad reposted on the Kemah Boardwalk Facebook page.
"There are no visible markings on the bomb due to the level of deterioration. There are 2 holes in the main part of the body that rusted through enough to allow the high explosive ingredients to leak out. We are not sure when that happened but can safely say it was many years ago."
