Dramatic footage of the moment armed police swooped on a gang accused of smuggling dozens of machine guns into the UK has been shown in court.

Firearms officers from Kent Police moved in as sports bags and suitcases were unloaded from a boat at Cuxton marina near Rochester.

The deadly cargo, 22 Czech-made AK47-style assault rifles and nine fully automatic Skorpion sub-machine guns, had been shipped in from Boulogne in France on board the Albernina skippered by David Payne, 43.

They had a street value of £100,000 and prosecutors told the Old Bailey the weapons were "capable of unleashing carnage on a terrifying scale".

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Swanley man Harry Shilling, 22, is accused of masterminding the plot to smuggle the arsenal from eastern Europe.

The video was recorded by the National Crime Agency (NCA) in August, and shows a bare-chested Bexleyheath suspect John Smale, 58, and Rochester residents David Payne, 43, and Christopher Owen, 30, offloading bags from the boat.

Payne was arrested by the NCA shortly after, as he drove his van away.

Meanwhile, Kent Police officers apprehended Smale and Owen on the Albernina, and Jennifer Arthy, 48, on the nearby Ali Kat.

Earlier jurors had heard how officers watched as a topless Smale drank several cans of Strongbow cider.

It is claimed that after the boat arrived in the UK Shilling sent a message to a friend reading: "We now officially gangsters."

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Arthy and Smale, of Rochester Road, Halling, Rochester; Shilling, of Hart Dyke Road, in Swanley; and Defraine, of Franklin Road, Bexleyheath, all deny being knowingly concerned in the evasion of a prohibition on importation of the firearms and conspiracy to possess firearms with intent to endanger life.

Rye, of Lime Road, Swanley; Payne, of Rochester Road, Halling; and Owen, of Bush Road, Cuxton, have pleaded guilty to being knowingly concerned in the evasion of a prohibition on importation of the firearms.

Rye and Payne also admitted conspiracy to possess firearms with intent to endanger life.

The trial continues.