The National Crime Agency (NCA) and Border Force have intercepted 25 inflatable boats at East Midlands Airport after intelligence identified the shipment as equipment destined for people-smuggling operations across the English Channel.
The seizure took place on Friday, 2 October, after the boats were identified by the NCA and the Home Office Intelligence Team among pallets on an air freight shipment travelling from Turkey to the Netherlands. The consignment passed through the freight hub at East Midlands Airport, giving officers an opportunity to intervene before the equipment could reach its intended destination.
Each boat measures around nine metres in length and could have carried approximately 70 people across the Channel. Taken together, the 25 boats had the potential to transport around 1,700 people to the UK.
The operation marks the second major seizure of small-boat equipment in the UK this year and the first time such a significant consignment has been intercepted within an air freight shipment.
In July, authorities seized another 25 boats along with 25 engines in a maritime consignment at Felixstowe. The vessel transporting the equipment had stopped at the UK port while travelling towards Germany.
NCA Deputy Director of Investigations Craig Turner said the agency continues to focus on the individuals and criminal groups involved in supplying boats and engines used for Channel crossings.
According to Turner, enforcement efforts are being carried out both in the UK and overseas in cooperation with international partners. These operations have so far resulted in the seizure of more than 1,600 boats and engines, preventing criminal networks from using the equipment.
The NCA believes the seizures are also affecting the economics of organised smuggling operations by increasing the cost of boats and engines, making it harder for criminal networks to move the equipment to the coast and reducing their profits.
Turner said the boats intercepted at East Midlands Airport could otherwise have been used in crossings that would have placed the lives of a large number of people at risk. The investigation remains ongoing.
The UK Minister for Border Security and Asylum, Anna Turley, described the seizure of the 25 boats as another setback for organised smuggling networks.
She said disruptions to the supply lines supporting small-boat crossings are becoming increasingly frequent as authorities intensify efforts against illegal and dangerous Channel crossings.
Turley also pointed to broader enforcement results, noting that the summer of 2026 recorded the lowest number of small-boat arrivals since 2020, while arrests for immigration crime increased by 74 percent compared with the previous year. She said the government would continue its efforts to strengthen control of the UK border.
For the NCA, targeting, disrupting and dismantling organised immigration crime networks remains a major priority. Around 100 investigations involving individuals and groups linked to organised immigration crime are currently ongoing.
The latest seizure comes shortly after the NCA published an assessment examining the factors affecting small-boat crossings. The agency said constraints affecting the supply chains for boats and engines had become a key factor influencing organised criminal groups involved in Channel crossings.
The assessment also concluded that law enforcement activity had played an important role in reducing the number of people transported illegally to the UK by small boats during the first half of 2026.
Meanwhile, NCA-linked arrests for organised immigration crime increased by more than 55 percent in the year to April 2026, highlighting the continuing expansion of enforcement activity against the criminal networks behind the crossings.
