Major supplier for thousands of small boat crossings jailed

A major supplier of small boats and engines believed to be used in thousands of Channel crossings to the UK has been jailed for 11 years and fined 400,000 euro (more than £346,000).

Turkish national Adem Savas, 45, was sentenced at a Belgian court on Wednesday after a joint operation between the National Crime Agency (NCA) and Belgian authorities.

The NCA believe in 2023 Savas will have supplied equipment used in around half of all Channel crossings, making him the agency’s most wanted man as a key player in European people smuggling circles.

He is thought to have made millions from charging an average of £4,000 per package in his operations between 2019 until his arrest in 2024.

Savas was first flagged to the NCA when investigating the now jailed ringleader of a people smuggling gang, Hewa Rahimpur, responsible for moving 10,000 migrants in small boat crossings to the UK.

Evidence found by investigators on Rahimpur’s phones showed the pair were in regular contact, including an exchange of messages and pictures of a white rubber boat in November 2021 after the deaths of 27 migrants in the Channel, along with a screen grab of a news website showing how an identical boat had been used in the deadly crossing.

Investigators have not been able to directly link any deaths to Savas.

Savas was arrested at Schipol Airport in Amsterdam on November 13 2024 and extradited to Belgium where he admitted offences of people smuggling and being a member of an organised crime group on December 3 last year.

NCA director general of operations, Rob Jones, said: “Adem Savas was without doubt the most significant supplier of boats and engines to people smuggling gangs involved in organising deadly crossings in the Channel, the head of a criminal network stretching across Europe to the beaches of northern France and across into the UK.

“He pretended to run a legitimate maritime supply company, but in reality he knew exactly how the equipment he provided would be used.

“He also knew exactly how unsuitable it was for long sea crossings.

“Boats and engines supplied by Savas were likely involved in numerous fatal events in the Channel – he made money from each of those.”

The NCA said working with Belgian colleagues, they discovered how boats sourced by Savas – mainly of cheap “Parsun” branded boats from China – were moved overland from Turkey to Bulgaria and then across to Germany where they were stored ahead of the journeys.

It comes as part of Government efforts to crack down on people-smuggling gangs to curb migrants making the dangerous journeys across the English Channel.

Speaking to the Press Association, NCA deputy director Craig Turner said Savas and three other members of his criminal network were jailed for a total of 49 years, which sends a “clear message” to those wanting to supply small boats equipment across Europe.

Asked how effective individual convictions are in disrupting smuggling gangs, he said: “We don’t see this as being a silver bullet, we see this as being one line of effort that the National Crime Agency and other organisations in the UK and across Europe seek to deploy to reduce, obviously, the supply of small boats equipment, as well as migrant crossings across the board.

“So we don’t think that this will obviously solve the issue, but it’s one line of effort and a significant message and significant sentence.”

Border security minister Alex Norris said: “We are cracking down on the criminals exchanging human lives for cash.

“Our brilliant National Crime Agency officers have worked alongside international allies to take down this smuggling kingpin and put him behind bars where he belongs.”