Police Patrol ‘Grassy’ Beaches

RIO DE JANEIRO — Police patrolled Brazil’s shores Monday to prevent beachcombers from picking up any of hundreds of large, industrially sealed cans of marijuana that have been washing up in the surf.

Federal drug agent Claudio Barrouin said that police suspect the drugs were thrown overboard from a Panamanian-registered yacht bound for the United States from Australia that entered Brazilian waters with engine problems. About 2,000 cans--roughly three tons of the drug--have washed ashore so far at a dozen different beaches, Barrouin said.