Figure caption, The BBC's Jessica Parker takes a look at the 'huge haul' of seized items in the secret warehouseByJessica ParkerBerlin correspondentInside a warehouse in a secret location in Germany, thousands of life jackets and dozens of dinghies are stacked on top of each other after being seized in a raid on smuggling gangs. Germany has become a staging post for criminals organising crossings on the English Channel, and authorities have now carried out their first raids under a new law making it a crime to facilitate migrant smuggling to the UK.
The BBC was given special access to a police storehouse, housing more than 9,000 life jackets and dozens of dinghies and boat engines in an operation in western Germany. The boats could have taken more than 2,000 migrants across the Channel illegally, the UK's National Crime Agency said.
Smuggling gangs have long used garages or warehouses to store equipment in western Germany before transporting it to northern France. Until recently, however, key anti-smuggling laws in Germany only applied to nations within the EU's zone of free movement, not to third countries, which included the UK after Brexit.
Image caption, Thousands of life jackets, covered in plastic wrapping, were seized by the German authorities in the springRaids have happened in Germany before, but often relied on French or Belgian warrants. In 2024, Germany said it would tighten its laws to make it easier to prosecute those helping to ferry migrants to the UK, as part of a new plan agreed between the two countries.
It followed a BBC investigation which exposed the country's role in the small boat supply chain. Germany's Interior Ministry confirmed that these raids marked the first time enforcement measures had been taken under the new law, but did not confirm if the law had been employed more than once.
The BBC was able to see the results of the raid, which took place in the North Rhine-Westphalia region and involved French, German and UK investigators, at an undisclosed police storehouse in western Germany. The stash has been kept much as it was found.
The dinghies, that officials say measure approximately 9m (29ft), are deflated and mainly packaged up in cardboard boxes. The massive haul also included 360 pumps.
In June, when the National Crime Agency first revealed the raids had happened, it was estimated that the equipment could have taken more than 2,000 people across the Channel - which would work out to about 65 people per dinghy. That number is less than the so-called mega dinghies seen this summer but matches recent averages as well as the general trend of rising passenger numbers.
