German authorities will start seizing boats used for Channel migrant crossings in January, the Daily Express can reveal.

Berlin has told Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper a new law will be passed before December 19 allowing police to carry out raids on warehouses used by smuggling gangs to store key pieces of equipment.

Germany will make it a criminal offence to “facilitate the smuggling” of asylum seekers.

And operations will take place a month later, officials believe.

Smugglers have exploited loopholes in German law to bring engines and boats to the French coast, bragging that they can reach the French coast using the motorway network within several hours.

Thousands of migrants also pass through the country, with organised crime gangs using safehouses near Bonn, Cologne, Frankfurt, Essen, Dusseldorf, Bochum and Dortmund.

Criminals have admitted sometimes offering ‘bait’ to German police.

This sees the gangsters allow the authorities to seize boats and equipment – but not enough to disrupt their businesses.

But German Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul told Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper they will begin seizing boats in the New Year.

Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper said: “Together with Germany we are taking new action to stop illegal small boat crossings, to strengthen border security and to go after the criminal smuggler gangs who have been storing boats and equipment in German warehouses.

“As a result of the landmark Treaty we signed earlier in the year, Germany is now set to change its law by Christmas so our police can jointly go after the smugglers and traffickers and their vile trade in human lives

“Criminal smuggler gangs operate across borders, so governments and law enforcement need to cooperate across borders to bring them down.

“Our partnerships with other countries alongside our reforms to the broken asylum system are crucial to restoring order and control and strengthening our border security.”