over with leaves. Several weeks later
curiosity got the best of him, and he
hauled the parcel home in his pickup,
discovered what looked like cocaine
inside, and then decided to bury the
70-pound bale in his garden. For the
next decade or so, Julian and his wife
worked on a sea turtle preservation
proje c t. T he n they’d move d to Florida ,
leaving behind their buried treasure...
As the men sat laughing and joking
around the campfi re on that July night
in 2004, the newcomer stayed silent,
pondering the tale he had just heard.
Up until that point, Rodney Hyden
had been the successful owner of a
construction company, doing up to
$20 million in business every year
with a staff of 80 employees. He built
a nice large house for his family in
Gainesville and he had another one
in Crystal River. But then in 2008 the
real estate market crashed. Rodney
drastically cut back his staff and lost
both the river house and his offi ce.
“I had a couple million in the bank,
but then the market collapsed,” he
recalls. He kept attending the Friday
night gatherings in Archer, hearing
Julian’s story over and over again,
and there came a time when he just
couldn’t get it out of his head.
Then a drug addict named Danny,
who was also familiar with the story,“YOU SHOULD NEVER
RELY ON SOMEONE ELSE
FOR SOMETHING YOU
CAN DO YOURSELF. AND
IF YOU CAN’T DO IT,
YOU LEARN HOW.”
approached Rodney, offering to help
recover the drugs from Puerto Rico.
He said he knew someone who could
dig them up and bring them back to
Florida, where someone else could
sell them. By 2012 Rodney was ready
to take the plunge. After meeting with
potential drug runners and a pilot, he
got the coordinates of the hiding
place from Julian, drew a map, and
set out for Puerto Rico, telling his
family he was going on a fi shing trip.RAIDERS OF
THE LOST NARK
Arriving on Culebra, Rodney found
the site where Julian’s mobile homeideasanddiscoveries.com 47 May 2020