Robert Firth
A HIGH speed drug boat has run aground on Torremolinos’s main beach, carrying illegal immigrants.
Shocked beach-goers watched as the vessel, which is normally used to carry hashish, burst ashore at around 9:45am this morning.
But instead of drugs being unloaded from the boat, onlookers saw several people jump off the vessel and run away.
Eyewitnesses contacted local police, who alerted the National Police and the Guardia Civil in due course.
Fast-moving rigid inflatable boats (RIBs) are banned from the Andalucian coast in order to prevent drug trafficking.
Authorities have seized the boat and are holding it in a warehouse for safekeeping.
People smugglers charge up to €6,000 to transport migrants to Spain in these vessels.
It is common practice for smugglers to carry people on jet skis and then dump them a few metres from the coastline.
