GERMANY must plug a legal loophole that is thwarting Sir Keir Starmer’s pledge to crack down on drug gangs, the head of the National Crime Agency has revealed.

It is not illegal to transport migrants through Germany to a non-EU nation — which includes Britain — since Brex.

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And gangs hosting millions of desperate refugees evading justice by storing boats inland German borders just three hours by car from Channel coast.

In an exclusive interview, NCA chief executive Graeme Biggar said the loophole was hurting the government’s drive against gangs.

Mr Biggar said: “We have to work with the laws that exist in all the countries we work with and we have to respect their different systems.

“But that limits what German justice implementation are able to do in our support. In the legal framework they have, they work incredibly hard.

“Road of Destruction”

“They themselves have a very significant challenge in terms of illegal migration that they are dealing with and so we are really grateful for the support that we are getting.

“But it’s a point we make to them constantly and it would help if they were able to do a bit more.

“It is obviously a matter for the German government to decide, but from our point of view a change in the law would be useful.”

Boats made in China are shipped Turkey over 3,500 miles after being ordered by smuggling gangs, then driven to Germany.

They are stored in a network of warehouses in western Germany ready to be sold to accomplices or migrant groups and transported by ferry. Netherlands and Belgium on the way to the coast of the French Channel.

These can either be inflated in German warehouses before making the journey to the French coast, or once transported across the Channel.

From there they are launched on the perilous 22-mile crossing to Kent.

Mr Biggar raised his concerns during Interpol’s General Assembly in Glasgow this week.

Last night Tory MP Sir Alec Shelbrooke said: “Being a member of the EU should be irrelevant to the conversation about how any moral country can look away from the exploitation of vulnerable people who die by the decades every year.”

Fellow Tory MP Karen Bradley, chair of the Home Affairs Select Committee, said: “Stopping the appalling and dangerous smuggling trade should be a global priority and law enforcement needs every tool available.”

Mr Biggar was supported by Richard Chambers, Interpol’s Director of Organizations and Emergencies Crimewho told The Sun on Sunday that gangs were taking advantage of the loophole.

Mr Chambers said: “When it comes to organized crime around the world, there are a lot of vulnerabilities, there are a lot of opportunities and they will look for them.

“They don’t care what the destruction is.”

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The German connection was highlighted as PM Sir Keir vowed to destroy the gangs which have already transported over 31,000 migrants across the Channel this year.

He advocated better cooperation between European nations along smuggling routes eliminating the scheme of Rwandan conservatives.

But German government officials have argued that their nation is not a geographical neighbor of the UK, so “no direct smuggling takes place”.

A BBC investigate revealed last month that gang lords in the German city of Essen were offering £12,500 packages to would-be traffickers.

The deal given to an undercover reporter included a boat with an outboard motor and 60 life jackets, with the boat being delivered by road to Calais.

And the traffickers will make up to £100,000 for each potentially deadly journey, charging 60 passengers £1,660 each.

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The BBC investigator was also offered a deal where he was told he could pick up a boat himself to drive from Germany to the French coast for £6,670.

The probe showed that Germany has become a central location for the storage of boats and engines.

A trafficker from Essen who calls himself Abu Sahar offered a BBC investigator: a boat stored in one of the ten warehouses used by his gang nearby.

The smugglers also boasted of their ability to get boats and motors to Calais in “three to four hours” on the motorways.

German police effectively turned a blind eye to trafficking activities, even when they found dozens of boats stored within their borders.

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BBC Berlin correspondent Jessica Parker explained: “Facilitation people who smuggle it is not technically illegal in Germany if it is in a third country outside the EU, which is now the UK after Brexit”.

Berlin’s interior ministry says Germany and Britain are not geographical the neighbors so “no direct smuggling is taking place” – and this is the loophole Starmer and NCA chief Mr Biggar are determined to fix.

Last year, German police arrested a key gang member named “Dirk P”, 41, suspected of being the gang’s logistical coordinator.

About 50 the canals and 920 life jackets were found on his farm in Lotte, 80 miles from Essen – but no action was taken against him.

“Prevent Threats”

He was linked to gangs crossing the Channel through mobile phone data but claimed he was hire out of the warehouse and was not a trafficker.

But the investigation was intensified after a smuggler shot near the boat shop cooperated with police.

Dirk was detained on firearms and gang-related charges after three guns were found on his property, but was not charged with smuggling offences.

Around 700 German police officers joined an operation in February in more than 20 towns in North Rhine-Westphalia near Essen targeting traffickers.

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Germany’s interior ministry also insisted its international cooperation was “very good” and stressed that German authorities could take action at the UK’s request.

A spokesman added that while it is not illegal to assist smuggling from Germany to the UK, it is punishable to assist smuggling to Belgium or Francewhere crossings take place.

A spokesman for North Rhine-Westphalia’s State Office for Criminal Investigation said: “Smuggling people from the EU into the UK is no longer a crime in Germany after Brexit.

This means that possession of the means of crime – for example boats – is not a crime for now.

“The prosecution of smuggling gangs is the direct responsibility of the Federal Police.”

A spokesman for the Federal Police said: “We are focused on combating smuggling crime, including English Channel.

“Law enforcement actions are carried out both to prevent threats and under federal state and federal government police laws.”

French authorities working with British gangbusters also called for more German action.

Pascal Marconville, a prosecutor from the north of the state Francesaid: “It is important to prove to the Germans that these boats are connected with crime on our coasts, which will enable them to intervene.”