Migrant dinghies capable of carrying up to 1,700 people across the Channel have been seized at a British airport in a major crackdown on people-smuggling gangs.
The National Crime Agency and Border Force intercepted the 25 inflatable boats at East Midlands Airport.
The vessels were hidden inside pallets in an air-freight shipment travelling from Turkey to the Netherlands.
Each nine-metre boat could carry about 70 people, so the shipment could transport about 1,700 migrants.
It is the first time this year that equipment intended to help migrants break into Britain has been seized in an air-freight shipment.
The operation comes as authorities step up efforts to disrupt the supply chains feeding the Channel smuggling networks, with more than 1,600 boats and engines now seized.
Authorities seized the latest haul on Friday, October 2, after intelligence officers identified the shipment as it passed through East Midlands Airport.
NCA Deputy Director Craig Turner said targeting those supplying boats and engines was helping to “drive up the cost” for criminal gangs.
Migrant dinghies capable of carrying up to 1,700 people across the Channel have been seized by Border Force
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NATIONAL CRIME AGENCY
He said this was making it harder to get equipment to the coast and “eating into the profits” of organised crime networks.
Border Security and Asylum Minister Anna Turley described the airport seizure as “yet another blow to the evil smuggling gangs”.
She added that disruption to organised crime supply chains was happening “more than ever before”.
It follows a separate operation in July when officers seized 25 boats and 25 engines from a maritime shipment at Felixstowe while it was being transported towards Germany.
The craft were intercepted at East Midlands Airport
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GETTY
GB News revealed that 1,300 migrants have arrived in the UK since Friday
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PA
Sunday’s total included 146 migrants who arrived in UK waters near the Isle of Wight after setting off in a mega dinghy in western Normandy.
The uptick in arrivals comes as numbers were expected to drop, given worsening weather conditions for crossings.
Meanwhile, tensions among local communities where migrants are landed have boiled over in recent weeks.
Sunday’s arrival in Gosport in Hampshire saw hundreds of angry protestors attempt to block roads in and around the port.
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