A TURKISH boat dealer who boasted he was “King of the people smugglers” has been jailed for 11 years for helping hundreds of thousands cross the English Channel.
Adem Savas, 45, pocketed millions from supplying inflatable boats, outboard motors and life jackets to trafficking gangs.
He used his legitimate marine supplies business in Turkey as cover for the decade-long racket during which he bought thousands of boats and other equipment in China.
Savas then shipped them through Turkey to Europe where he hid them in storage units in Germany before using vans to drive them to northern France.
He used the ill-gotten gains to buy a house in Turkey, a plot of land and a fleet of luxury vehicles before he was arrested in Amsterdam on his way to a boat show in a joint operation by the UK’s National Crime Agency and Dutch and Belgian cops.
A judge in Bruges, Belgium, jailed him today and said he had made “massive financial gain” by his “contempt for the laws”.
The Channel migrant route is worth an estimated £130million a year to criminal gangs with a total of 41,472 people crossing by small boats last year, an increase of 13% on 2024.
Savas used his expertise as a marine supplies boss to become a global kingpin in the racket, selling boats to the traffickers from 2015 and possibly even sooner.
When he was arrested he claimed he was just a boat salesman with no idea what the dinghies he was supplying would be used for.
But a source connected to the investigation told The Sun: “They were not being used for sailing competitions, put it that way.
“The gangs who take the migrants across the Channel to England could not do what they do without people like him.
“He was a major player who sold many thousands of boats.”
Savas was in regular contact by text message with other criminal associates helping to take the migrants over the Channel, the court heard.
They even discussed tragedies when their boats sank including in November 2021 when 28 people drowned including women and children– the deadliest ever incident in the Channel.
But the heartless crooks always agreed to carry on supplying their equipment to the Kurdish gangs who run the Calais end of the business.
Savas was finally arrested in November 2024 after police trawled phone records linked to the London-based Iraqi people smuggler Hewa Rahimpur, 30.
Rahimpur was arrested in Ilford, east London in May 2022, triggering a Europe-wide investigation into a smuggling ring which had taken 10,000 migrants across the Channel.
More than 40 people were detained across four countries with Rahimpur jailed for 13 years in 2023.
When police raided one of Savas’s storage units in Germany they found a van loaded with 100 lifejackets and two 40 horsepower outboard motors, capable of reaching 30mph, ready to be driven to Calais.
They also found 320 lifejackets inside the unit and a 26ft-long RIB, just a drop in the ocean of the total amount of kit he supplied.
He was the main importer of cheap ‘Parsun’ branded engines from China, the trafficking gangs’ favoured engine.
And the NCA reckon his equipment was used to transport one in every two migrants who attempted the Channel crossing.
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.”
Minister for Border Security and Asylum Alex Norris added: “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.”
Savas was also fined 400,000 euros after admitting human trafficking and a confiscation order for criminal proceeds of 100,000 euros was made.
Three Iraqis who he worked with and who have never been arrested were convicted in their absence and jailed for a total of 38 years.