Officials seize inflatable smuggling boats capable, according to reporting, of transporting up to 1,700 people across the English Channel at East Midlands Airport. The boats are intercepted at a UK freight hub, with reporting focused on their potential use by people-smuggling networks.
Different outlets describe the operation with varying emphasis on the details. One account says nine-metre-long vessels are spotted after intelligence officers identify them hidden in pallets aboard an air freight shipment. Another reports that the National Crime Agency and Border Force carry out the seizure at the airport, describing 25 vessels being seized at the site.
The outlets broadly agree on where the boats are seized and the headline figure of 1,700 possible passengers. They differ on the number of boats mentioned and how the detection method is described, but all attribute the action to UK law-enforcement agencies using intelligence and checks at the freight location.
