25 inflatable boats bound for people smugglers seized in air freight at East Midlands Airport

Mixed · 2The National Crime Agency (NCA) and Border Force seized 25 inflatable boats, each about nine metres long, at East Midlands Airport on Friday 2 October. 1 2 Mixed · 2The boats were hidden in pallets on an air freight shipment moving from Turkey to the Netherlands, which passed through the airport's freight hub. 1 3 Mixed · 2The NCA said that had the boats reached people smugglers, each could have carried around 70 people across the Channel; the Daily Mail and GB News put the total at up to 1,700. 1 2

Mixed · 2The NCA said it was the second large consignment of small boat equipment seized in the UK in 2026 and the first detected in air freight; GB News words this as the first time this year. 1 2 Mixed · 2The first was in July, when 25 boats and 25 engines were seized from a maritime consignment at Felixstowe, Suffolk, from a vessel that had stopped there on its way to Germany. 1 3 Centre · 1NCA deputy director of investigations Craig Turner said the agency targets those supplying boats and engines, in the UK and overseas with international partners, and that this has led to the seizure of more than 1,600 boats and engines. 1

Mixed · 2Turner said the NCA's assessment was that this is driving up the cost of boats and engines, making them harder to get to the coast and eating into gangs' profits, and that the investigation continues. 1 2 Mixed · 2Border security and asylum minister Anna Turley called the seizure "yet another blow to the evil smuggling gangs" and said disruption of supply lines was happening "more than ever before". 1 2 Mixed · 2The NCA said about 100 investigations into organised immigration crime are ongoing. 1 3

Right · 1The Daily Mail adds that an NCA assessment published last month found restrictions on boat and engine supply had become a key factor affecting smuggling groups, and that law enforcement had helped reduce small-boat arrivals in the first half of 2026. 3 Right · 1Turley said this summer saw the lowest number of small boat arrivals since 2020 and immigration crime arrests were up 74 per cent; the Daily Mail reported 19,869 known crossings so far this year in almost 300 boats. 3 Right · 1GB News, citing its own exclusive reporting, said about 1,300 migrants arrived between Friday and Monday, including about 600 on Monday, the highest daily total this year, and that two men died attempting the crossing. 2