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Beware fast boats bearing cocaine

Jettisoned drugs are swamping the economy of an island paradise, reports mike power

On a tiny, paradisical island off Panama's Caribbean coast, a ragged sailboat lands at a jetty and two Kuna Indians sprint ashore carrying a 30kg package of cocaine. The wind rushes through the thatched huts; it sounds like the whole island is whispering conspiratorially.

The drugs were dumped from a rapid Colombian boat (right) scuppered by its captain when coastguards gave chase. Some days, such boats wash ashore.

"I was waiting for the coconut harvest when I saw this thing bobbing in the water," says a Kuna man. "I thought it was a monster,