Dramatic video shows moment two drug smugglers leap from boat into sea as they’re caught with £39m of cocaine

Dramatic video shows the moment two drug smugglers jumped from a powerboat in an attempt to escape arrest as they were caught importing £39m of cocaine.

On June 24, Bruce Knowles, 55, from Dereham, and Ferhat Gumrukguoglu, 31, from the Netherlands, were travelling near the East Benacre Broads, Suffolk in a rigid hulled inflatable boat (RHIB).

The pair initially failed to stop when a Border Force cutter approached the boat. Gumrukguoglu jumped from the vessel and swam towards the shore, with Knowles restarting the engines and attempting to flee.

After a short pursuit, the boat was grounded on the beach and officers moved in to arrest Knowles, after he also jumped overboard to try and escape. Officers from Norfolk and Suffolk Police pursued Gumrukguoglu after he fled from the beach and arrested him later that day in Wrentham.

The boat was towed to a harbour in Lowestoft where it was searched by National Crime Agency (NCA) officers, who found the haul of drugs - 350 kilograms of cocaine, worth an estimated £39 million - hidden under tarpaulin. Investigators believe Knowles and Gumrukguoglu travelled towards French waters to pick up the drugs from a larger ship, before bringing them back to the UK.

Both men were interviewed and gave no comment, but were subsequently charged with importing a controlled drug. They pleaded guilty to the offence at Ipswich Crown Court on August 20.