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Man Stumbles Upon Kilo Of Cocaine Labeled ‘Porsche’ On Daytona Beach

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A Florida man on a morning beach jog in Daytona discovered a kilo of cocaine labeled “Porsche” washed up on the shore.

Chris Criche, 31, called Daytona Beach Police Department Tuesday to report his find, which authorities later confirmed to be cocaine. Criche was on a morning run along the water line when he came across a black package labeled “Porsche,” which he thought might contain a replacement car part, WESH2 reported.

Upon opening the package, which was wrapped in cellophane and weatherproofing rubber, Criche found a large amount of white powder he suspected to be cocaine. (RELATED: Half Billion Dollars Of Cocaine Seized In Central American Waters By US Coast Guard)

“I got the cellophane off of it, and when I got to like a rubber material … I popped that open and something just kind of flew out so I knew immediately, I was like, ‘Oh, my God, I shouldn’t be holding this,'” Criche told WESH2.

Investigators are attempting to determine the origin of the barnacle-covered cocaine shipment.

Cocaine is increasingly being linked to drug overdose deaths in the U.S. due to dealers cutting supplies with the potent fentanyl, an opioid roughly 50 to 100 times more powerful than morphine. Cocaine deaths spiked by 52 percent nationally between 2015 and 2016, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, following many years of relatively stable numbers.

Cocaine is now killing roughly 13,000 Americans each year, up from 6,700 in 2015, officials estimated.

Fentanyl overtook heroin as the deadliest substance in the U.S. in 2016, claiming 19,413 lives in 2017, according to data from the CDC.

Because cocaine is more widely used as a social drug than a substance like heroin, many users are unaware of the fatal risks even a small amount of the drug now carries, authorities fear.

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