THIS is the dramatic moment drug smugglers set their own yacht alight to destroy their gargantuan cocaine haul.
Moments before, the two men had been chased by a police boat just off the coast of holiday hotspot Tenerife.
Unbelievable footage shows the tense boat chase, with multiple cop yachts surrounding the drug vessel.
Once the smugglers realised there was no escape it seems, they deliberately set the boat on fire.
The panicked smugglers are seen trying to start a blaze – and are eventually successful.
The pair risk their lives on the choppy sea as the boat quickly becomes engulfed in flames.
The blaze not only put themselves in danger but surrounding cops too, as the vessel could have exploded at any time.
Cops were captured in the footage desperately trying to put the fire out with strong hosepipes.
The drug smugglers, one of French nationality and the other Dutch, jumped into the sea.
One of them was said to be very seriously injured.
The sailing boat was intercepted by the police about 50 miles from the Canary Islands.
The boat eventually sank, taking most of the drugs down with it, but the crew of the police patrol boat “Sacre” managed to recover 25kg of cocaine.
The operation was part of the plan to intensify the investigation, surveillance and control of the cocaine smuggling in the Canary Islands.
A tip-off was received about a boat close to the holiday island, and was said to contain a significant amount of narcotic substance on board.
The plan was to transfer the haul to another boat, a semi-rigid type, which would be take the drugs to the Spanish coast.
A police representative commented, “The Custom’s patrol team faced a highly perilous maritime operation, confronting turbulent waters and a deliberate fire by the vessel’s crew intended to obliterate the cocaine and the sailboat.”
“The swift action of Customs Surveillance Service officers allowed them to initially extinguish the fire and complete the boarding of the vessel.
“The officers managed to retrieve a portion of the cargo before the blaze flared up again, which eventually consumed the bulk of the cocaine as well as the Lona, the sloop used for its transport.”
The two crew members of the sailboat have been arrested.
The man who was seriously injured in the fire was transported, presumably to hospital, via chopper by Maritime Rescue.
The two Customs Surveillance Service vessels, along with the detainees and the recovered drugs, were brought into Tenerife’s capital of Santa Cruz.
The operation was carried out by the Civil Guard, National Police and Customs Surveillance in association with the British and American authorities.
