This is the moment two drug traffickers were rescued off the coast of Spain after setting their cocaine-filled sail boat on fire.
Footage shared by the Spanish authorities shows the two men, a French and Dutch national, setting the vessel ablaze some 92km off Tenerife last Friday.
The French national suffered serious burns and had to be airlifted to hospital by helicopter.
Despite the vessel going down, customs agents aboard the Tenerife-based patrol boat Sacre managed to recover 25kg of cocaine.
The sailboat, a sloop named Lona, had been under surveillance as part of a joint probe by the UK’s National Crime Agency (NCA) and the US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA).
The operation was run via the Atlantic Maritime Analysis and Operations Centre (MAOC), and coordinated in Spain by the CITCO intelligence centre.
Authorities believe the Lona was due to offload its cargo to a high-speed rigid inflatable boat, which would then bring the drugs ashore.
Spanish customs patrol vessels Petrel I and Sacre closed in on the sailboat in rough seas.
Officials described the boarding as ‘high-risk’ due to the weather conditions and the fire intentionally set by the crew in a last-ditch effort to destroy both the vessel and the contraband.
Officers managed to briefly bring the fire under control and board the boat, recovering part of the stash. But flames reignited, consuming most of the cocaine and eventually sinking the sailboat.
The two crew members were arrested and brought to Santa Cruz de Tenerife along with the recovered drugs.
Read more Spain news at the Spanish Eye.
