A man who supplied thousands of small boats and engines to people smugglers in the English Channel has been jailed.
Adem Savas was described by the National Crime Agency, which previously listed him as its most wanted man, as “without a doubt the most significant supplier” to gangs behind the dangerous crossings between 2019 and 2024.
The Turkish national was sentenced to 11 years in prison and received a fine of €400,000 (£346,000) on Wednesday, after admitting to offences of people smuggling and being a member of an organised crime group.
The NCA said he had likely made millions from the operation, having charged on average around £4,000 for packages of boats and engines.
The 45-year-old is also thought to have supplied equipment used in about half of all crossings in 2023, the agency said, “making him a key figure in the European people smuggling hierarchy”.
Savas was sentenced at a court in Bruges, Belgium, after a joint operation between the NCA and Belgian authorities, having been arrested at Amsterdam’s Schiphol Airport in November 2024.
He was first identified during an investigation into Hewa Rahimpur, a Kurdish national who led a smuggling ring thought to be responsible for the movement of more than 10,000 migrants in small boats to the UK and jailed in 2023.
Savas was found to be his “key supplier of boats and engines”, according to the NCA.
The agency’s director general of operations, Rob Jones, said Savas’s supplies “were likely involved in numerous fatal events in the Channel”.
“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.”
Border Security Minister Alex Norris said the UK was “cracking down on the criminals exchanging human lives for cash” and praised officers for apprehending “this smuggling kingpin”.
Home Office figures showed that a total of 41,472 migrants crossed the Channel in small boats in 2025 – almost 5,000 more than the previous year.
It was the highest number since 2022, when nearly 46,000 migrants crossed.
Such crossings have become the most common way for people to be detected entering the UK illegally since 2020.
According to the United Nations, at least 84 people died while attempting to cross the Channel in 2024. Experts say the risks involved with the journey are increased by overcrowding on boats.
