One 61-year-old man has so far been arrested and charged with possession of cannabis over 20 grams for claiming part of the illegal flotsam.

The packages, containing individually wrapped five-kilo bricks, started to show up in advance of Hurricane Florence, the Washington Post reports.

One 999 caller said: “A huge bundle of drugs or something just washed up on the beach and there are people like fighting over it.

“There’s like seven or eight people out here and they’re all like huddling up against it.”

Around 45 kilograms of cannabis was recovered over two days by officials in Flagler Beach.