PORT TOWNSEND — Law officers seized more than 400 pounds of suspected “B.C. bud” marijuana from an unoccupied sailboat found adrift off Point Hudson on Wednesday evening.
No one was aboard the 20-foot sailboat when the captain of the MV Klickitat state ferry, sailing between Port Townsend and Keystone, spotted the boat drifting into shipping lines at about 5:30 p.m., according to U.S. Coast Guard and Olympic Peninsula Narcotics Enforcement Team reports.
Once the boat was towed to a marina, investigators found 20 hockey bags filled with about 400 pounds of packaged marijuana.
That amount of marijuana can fetch as much as $1.2 million if sold at wholesale prices, said Clallam County Sheriff’s Capt. Ron Cameron of OPNET.
The sailboat is unmarked, and investigators had not determined who the owner was Thursday.
“There’s lots of speculation whether the boat was just set adrift or came adrift,” Cameron said.
“It’s awful odd that someone would abandon 400 pounds.”
Second bust this week
The discovery is the second finding of “B.C. bud” in less than a week on the North Olympic Peninsula, but is among numerous cases of suspected marijuana smuggling from Canada to the Peninsula this year.
Close to two tons of the potent pot has been seized along the shores of Clallam and Jefferson counties since January.
On Saturday, federal agents intercepted a 17-foot Malibu boat in Sequim Bay and seized 209 pounds of “B.C. bud” concealed below the vessel’s deck.