Inflatable boats, rubber rings and motorbikes seized in Bulgaria before reaching people smugglers

Hundreds of inflatable boats, rubber rings, motors and pumps have been seized at the Bulgarian border to prevent them being used to transport migrants to Britain.

Over the past 12 months, the National Crime Agency (NCA) has been working with the Bulgarian National Customs Service and the Bulgarian Border Police – and together with the Ministry of Home Affairs and the Foreign Commonwealth and Development Agency (FCDO) to prevent the equipment from falling into the hands of human smugglers.

The joint operation resulted in 33 separate interceptions – and the seizure of 125 dangerous inflatable boats, 128 motors, more than 700 pumps and 300 rubber rings.

Earlier this month, the team went to the Kapitan Andreevo border crossing in the south Bulgaria perform targeted searches.

It is among the busiest land borders in Europe and is often used as a major route for human traffickers and human smuggling gangs.

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Motorcycles were found in a vehicle driven by a Bulgarian, who claimed he was transporting furniture for personal use. He was subsequently fined.

The day after the exercise, another ten Chinese outboard motors were seized.

If the equipment seized last year had reached criminal gangs it would have made them around £16.6 million in profits, the NCA said.

NCA Director of Intelligence Adrian Matthews said: “Bulgaria is a key location on the supply route for the criminal people smuggling networks involved in organizing dangerous crossings across the Channel.

“Knocking out this equipment before it can reach them not only disrupts their operations and hurts their profits, but it also prevents these deadly boats and underpowered engines from being used at sea where lives are at risk.”

Georgi Gospodinov, head of customs at the Kapitan Andreevo Border Police, added: “The joint exercises with partners of the British law enforcement authorities are extremely important for us.

“Sharing good practices guarantees good results in efficiently tackling the channels of contraband and illegal human trafficking.”