A FUGITIVE wanted for alleged drug smuggling into a North Yorkshire airfield has handed himself in to police in Gibraltar "dripping wet".

Police had been trying to hunt down Jason Waterman in connection with a drug trafficking investigation after 7kg of cocaine with a potential street value of £1.2m was discovered by Border Force officers at Bagby Airfield, near Thirsk, in October 2015.

But on Monday, Mr Waterman, originally from Watford, Hertfordshire, handed himself in to police, telling officers he had seen himself in an appeal by the National Crime Agency (NCA) on the BBC's Crimewatch Roadshow.

An NCA spokesman said: "Jason Waterman arrived without warning, dripping salt water and carrying a small bag of wet clothing, late on Monday evening.

"He refused to say how he had reached Gibraltar, only that it wasn't through the frontier."

The NCA is now seeking to extradite the 32-year-old, whose nicknames include Jugs and Jumbo, under a European Arrest Warrant.

The discovery, at Bagby Airfield, was made shortly after a light aircraft arrived from the Netherlands. The plane's pilot was arrested but later found not guilty of importation offences.

Brian Shaw, NCA North East operations manager, said: "It might sound like a cushy number, sitting around watching Crimewatch Roadshow on a Monday morning, but life as a fugitive is hard and stressful.

"The NCA first issued an appeal for Waterman in London nearly a year ago. Clearly something about the new appeal made him crack.

"To everyone else feeling the stress of being on the run, I would say we are patient people, we keep the pressure on, and we never stop looking for you."