Around 135 arrests were made and 4,815kg of cannabis seized at Manchester Airport last year making it the second worst Airport after Heathrow for smuggling
Almost 27 tonnes of cannabis was seized from smugglers flying into UK airports last year – around five times more than in 2023.
Last year 26,924kg of cannabis was seized from around 750 smugglers flying into UK airports. This quantity is nearly five times more than the 5,609kg of cannabis seized for the whole of 2023, when 134 suspects were arrested.
In August last year the National Crime Agency (NCA) issued a warning to travellers arriving into the UK from Thailand, Canada and the United States that they face jail sentences if caught attempting to bring cannabis into the country. The warning was issued following a huge increase in arrests and seizures.
Of the suspects, 460 were arrested having arrived from Thailand; 108 arriving from Canada and 63 arriving from the USA. The remainder had flown in from a variety of other countries.
By national breakdown, around 290 UK citizens, 162 Malaysians, 86 Canadians and 52 Americans were arrested on suspicion of smuggling cannabis into the UK on commercial flights.
The NCA judges that the trend is being fuelled by organised crime groups that have access to cannabis grown overseas in locations where it is legal, and recruiting couriers to transport it to the UK where it can generate greater profit for them.
Alex Murray, NCA Director of threat leadership, said:
“Border Force have been excellent in detecting these couriers at the border, after which the NCA takes on the investigation. The NCA continues to work with law enforcement partners in both the UK, and overseas to target high-risk routes, seize shipments of drugs and disrupt the criminal gangs involved, denying them profits. We have been working well with the Thai authorities who are also keen to intervene.
“Organised crime groups make significant profits by trafficking and selling perceived high-quality cannabis legally grown in the USA, Canada and Thailand illegally in the UK.
“Couriers run the risk of a potentially life-changing prison sentence. Our targeting of them is crucial to breaking the supply chain.
“We reissue our appeal to anyone who is asked to smuggle cannabis to think very carefully about the potential consequences of their actions, and the risks they run. Organised criminals can be persuasive and offer to pay smugglers. But as the numbers show, the risk of getting caught is very high, and simply isn’t worth it.”
