Twenty-five inflatable boats destined for people smuggling gangs operating in the English Channel have been intercepted by Bulgarian customs officers in two separate seizures, in a joint operation involving the National Crime Agency and Home Office intelligence teams.
The first seizure took place on Wednesday 24 June, when five boats were found in an HGV attempting to cross into Bulgaria at the Lesovo border crossing. Intelligence shared by the NCA and Home Office International Operations with Bulgarian partners through the NCA’s international network led to the discovery. Two days later, on Friday 26 June, a further 20 boats were found in a separate lorry at the same crossing, in a consignment that had been heading for Germany — a well-known storage location and staging post for equipment used by Channel people smugglers.
The NCA estimates that had the boats reached the Channel, they could have been used to transport more than 1,700 people to the UK.
Kenny Dron, the NCA’s International Head of Region, said: “Bulgaria is a key partner for the NCA in our work to disrupt the supply chains used by people smuggling networks, and we are extremely grateful for their support and work which led to these seizures. Although it is happening thousands of miles away, this work is impacting the crime groups, making it more difficult for them to source equipment, costing them money and ultimately stopping these dangerous unseaworthy boats being used to put lives at risk in the English Channel. Targeting the gangs’ business models is a priority for us, and the NCA has worked with international partners to seize more than 1,000 boats and engines since early 2023, with more than 500 seized in 2025.”
The NCA currently has more than 100 active investigations into individuals or groups involved in organised immigration crime, with resources deployed across source countries, transit countries including Greece, Italy and Bulgaria, near the UK border in France and Belgium, and inside the UK itself.
Minister for Border Security and Asylum Alex Norris said: “Thanks to the efforts of the National Crime Agency, Home Office intelligence teams and our Bulgarian partners, we have stopped thousands of potential crossings. We are restoring order and control to UK borders by cracking down on the supply of small boat equipment and breaking the criminal gangs’ business model. Under this government, disruptions to criminal smuggling activity including arrests, convictions and seizures are up nearly 50 per cent.”
