Shocking pictures give a glimpse of the scale of a criminal operation to ferry 10,000 people across the Channel.

Mounds of life jackets and deflated dinghies were uncovered in the biggest ever anti-smuggling sting, which saw raids across Europe and in London.

Around 40 people were arrested while 135 boats, 45 outboard engines and more than 1,200 life jackets were seized.

The operation was coordinated by the National Crime Agency in the UK and by Europol and Eurojust across Europe and also involved law enforcement in Belgium, Germany, France and the Netherlands.

NCA officers arrested six people in London, two of whom were detained on suspicion of conspiring to facilitate illegal immigration.

Two other men were arrested for immigration offences while a man and woman were both detained on suspicion of possessing cocaine with intent to supply.

Arrests were also made in Germany, the Netherlands and France.

The NCA deployed officers to Germany where more than 60 boats and 900 life jackets were recovered from a farm near Osnabruck. They will now be examined by specialists.

More boats, engines and life jackets were found in the Netherlands, along with pumps used to inflate dinghies.

NCA Deputy Director of Investigations Jacque Beer said: “This international investigation is targeting one of the most significant and most prolific crime groups involved in supplying small boats and moving migrants across the Channel.

“The NCA has played a key role, which has been months in the planning. We worked closely with partners in France, Belgium, Germany and the Netherlands to identify suspected members of this network.

“Criminal gangs involved in small boat crossings should know that we are committed to throwing the full weight of European law enforcement at curtailing your activities.”

The operation follows the arrest in May by NCA officers of a man living in London who is suspected of being a leading figure in the network.

Hewa Rahimpur, 29 and originally from Iran, is wanted by the authorities in Belgium and now faces extradition from the UK.

He is accused of sourcing the boats in Turkey and having them delivered to locations in Germany, Belgium and the Netherlands.

He would then direct other members of his criminal organisation to take them on to the northern French coast.

Those arrested for conspiring to facilitate illegal immigration in London yesterday were suspected customers of Rahimpur’s network, and were allegedly involved in orchestrating migrant movements and laundering the profits.

Others arrested overseas are suspected of being facilitators within the network.

One member of the network was wounded by a gunshot in a migrant camp in France in September 2021.

This incident is allegedly linked to a subsequent attempted murder case in Osnabrück, Germany, in November.

Home Secretary Priti Patel said: “These arrests send a clear message to the criminal gangs who are preying on vulnerable people across Europe and beyond: we will stop at nothing to end your sordid trade, bring you to justice and save lives.

“This hugely significant operation once again shows the NCA and our international partners working diligently to dismantle people-smuggling networks. These callous individuals treat human lives as a commodity and we will continue to work with our partners to ensure that they feel the full force of our new, tougher laws designed to break their business model and suitably punish them for their despicable crimes.”

In the last year the NCA has been involved in around 300 arrests related to organised immigration crime and is leading more than 60 investigations into organised immigration crime.

At least 21 organised criminal groups have been dismantled in France.

Since December more than 1,400 social media posts, pages or accounts advertising organised immigration crime services have been removed.