American Notes CRIME

Confiscated in a drug raid on Maui, Hawaii, three years ago, the handmade map with hieroglyphic scrawls looked like something out of Treasure Island. Once Drug Enforcement Administration agents deciphered it, however, the map and subsequent tips led to treasures beyond the dreams of Long John Silver. Investigators turned up 982 rare gold coins buried in hard-to-reach holes from Hawaii to Colorado. Officials expect the coins to bring $2 million or more in auctions that begin next week in Long Beach, Calif.

The most valuable discovery: a 1933 $10 eagle gold piece now worth $80,000 or more. The map, said the DEA last week, turned up in the home of a wind- surfing drug merchant known as "Colorado Bill" and "King Midas." Bill (the DEA is withholding his full name) can follow the auction from his cell in Lompoc, Calif., where he is doing 17 years for drug trafficking.