This is the moment Spanish Civil Guard cops fish three drug traffickers out of the sea after they fell in during an evasive manoeuvre and were being encircled by their out-of-control speedboat.

Civil Guard officers and agents of the Maritimo del Estrecho Group took part in the boat chase just south of Cape Trafalgar in the Spanish province of Cadiz on Saturday.

As part of Operation Indalo, the authorities confirmed that they arrested three suspects for drug trafficking, resisting arrest, and disobedience.

The agents were patrolling the southern waters of Cape Trafalgar when they received notice of a suspicious vessel, eight metres in length with a 300 horsepower engine, in the vicinity.

During the boat chase, the three suspects fell into the sea when the skipper made an evasive manoeuvre.

The out-of-control vessel was then circling the three men in the sea and posing a risk to their lives.

Civil Guard officers used their service weapons to shoot the engine and stop the unmanned boat from causing injury before fishing the three suspects out of the sea.

The suspects, all of Spanish nationality, were then taken to Port Barbate to receive medical assistance.

The footage shows the three men falling out of their boat and the out-of-control vessel then encircling them in the sea.

The men are pulled onto a police dinghy before being placed under arrest and taken back to port for medical checks.