At least 25 inflatable boats and 25 outboard engines destined for people-smuggling gangs have been seized at Felixstowe, the National Crime Agency stated.
NCA officers, working with Border Force search teams and the Port of Felixstowe, made the seizure on Saturday 18 July. The ten-metre rubber boats and Parsun outboard engines were found in a container being shipped from China.
According to the NCA, this is believed to be the first time a bulk consignment of boats and engines destined for people smugglers has been seized in the UK. The agency said the container’s next stop after Felixstowe would have been Hamburg, where investigators believe the cargo would have been offloaded. Germany is described by the NCA as a well-known staging post for boats and equipment used by cross-Channel smugglers operating in northern France and Belgium.
The agency said each boat could have carried around 80 people, meaning that had they reached the French coast they could have been used to put the lives of around 2,000 people at risk in the Channel. There is no suggestion the crew or operators of the ship knew what was in the container.
The NCA said that since it began targeting equipment supply chains in early 2023, more than 1,500 boats and engines have been intercepted by the agency and international partners. Its investigation into those behind the shipment continues, involving international law enforcement partners.
NCA Branch Commander Adam Berry was quoted in the press release as saying: “This was a significant seizure of small boat equipment which will put a huge dent in the profits of the criminal network involved. It will also have stopped these dangerous boats and under-powered engines being used to put lives at risk in the Channel.”
He added: “Once we identified that the shipment would pass through a UK port on its way to Germany, we were able to work quickly with our partners at Border Force to ensure it would go no further. Targeting the supply lines of people smuggling gangs is just one way we are trying to disrupt them. Our investigation continues.”
Border Security Commander Duncan Capps was quoted in the press release as saying: “This seizure delivers yet another serious blow to the criminal gangs facilitating dangerous and illegal Channel crossings. Thanks to the hard work of the NCA, Home Office intelligence teams and Border Force officers, disruptions like these to criminal networks and their supply lines are happening more than ever before. We will continue to investigate, pursue and detain all those smuggling flimsy small boat equipment, and ensure that they face the full force of the law.”
The NCA said tackling organised immigration crime remains a top priority and that it currently has more than 100 investigations ongoing into individuals or networks involved in people smuggling.
Surprised they’ve not named the Chinese company who makes these deathtraps. Who was the supplier who despatched them from China with the outboards. The Chinese government has shown in the past that it takes action after international embarrasment & loss of face. The manufacturers must be closed down. To keep seizing boats just doubles the happy manufacturer’s order book
The NCA have ba banged this story to death.Well done,! But it is beginning to sound like a one off lucky break rather than top notch police work. Have you ever seized anything similar before.
Maybe they can be put to good use in UK waters by the RN, water police or Border Force? 25 at 10m is quite a nice fleet size.
Would you set foot in a Chinese manufactured anything?
I thought that…But..they were described as flimsy..with underpowered engines?
Wonder if they were deliberately designed as ” one way” craft?
AA
Probably just cheap Chinese crap
Only needs to go 21miles
The Chinese have hegemony over China so I would take a different tack, I would call in the Chinese Ambassador and demand that China stop undermining UK Sovereignty in the strongest possible terms and send a Cmdo out to the South China Sea to participate in any exercises currently being held by Allies in the Region.
Bull Sh#t why here don’t they need to be in France. Another BBC NCA Conspiracy it’s a wonder they didnt find Farage’s ‘s DNA on them. Yet another load of bo#L#x.
Drop in the ocean (see what I did there) regarding the movement of men over the channel in these boats! Possibly an expendable sop to the authorities as others are moved via different ports! This is a bit of home office spin, which in the big multi billion pound business of smuggling dross to the UK, is effectively fuck all!
The hilarious thing in all this is the pretence that succesive government’s actually want to stop the boats.