Video shows the moment migrants are forced to jump into sea by diversifying operators of drug-trafficking boat off south coast of Spain

An exclusive video obtained by SUR's sister title La Voz de Cádiz shows how narco-boat crews are diversifying the business of bringing drugs from Morocco by ferrying fare-paying migrants who are callously dumped off the Spanish coast to enable a quick getaway.

The footage was filmed on board one of these so-called 'taxi boats', which charge up to 5,000 euros for the hellish, one-way trip. On this occasion the semi-rigid boat was equipped with at least two engines and carried, in addition to its crew, some thirty migrants: men and also some women. They are crammed together, sharing the space with fuel containers. They take up all the space in the RIB.

The trip may have lasted barely a quarter of an hour. According to sources consulted, the taxi-boat may have set off from Larache in Morocco. The migrants have no seat belts, unlike the skipper and crew, for the perilous, white-knuckle, trip.

Once they are close to shore the danger continues as the migrants are forced to jump into the water. In the video one can hear them warn each other: "There are rocks, there are rocks." At the same time a woman is heard crying, "No, no!".

Some jump in determinedly. Others, once they try to swim, turn back to the boat in fear. "Come on, we're on the shore. Let's go, let's go," the people smugglers shout; one has a clear Andalusian accent. When everyone is in the water and without checking if anyone has had any problems, or is drowning, they leave.

This is also how people smugglers reportedly acted last week in Camposoto and Sancti Petri in Cadiz. Four migrants died on Wednesday 29 November after being thrown into the water. The skipper and crew of the narco-boat fled.

In another incident, four gang members have been arrested by the Guardia Civil as being, allegedly, responsible for the murder of an migrant who was thrown into the sea along with six other people when they were travelling in a boat waiting to reach the beach known as 'La Pequeña Lulu' in Los Caños de Meca, in Barbate.

As the Guardia Civil reported on Monday, an investigation determined that the victims were being ferried by several smugglers (who they identified) and who were also transporting hashish at the same time.