UK Border Force
🇬🇧 United Kingdom · Customs · 16 reports
- People arrested
- 770
- Cannabis seized
- 45.0402 t
Totals of what these reports state; a report counts when a source it cites names the agency.
Five charged over 12 tonnes of cannabis seized at Southampton
Five people have been charged over the importation into Southampton of about 12 tonnes of cannabis from Canada, seized by Border Force on 3 May 2026 in two shipping containers. All five are due at Bristol Crown Court, where two of them have already denied the offences.
Arrested 3Charged 5Cannabis 12 tFive couriers jailed over 460 kg of cannabis flown to Birmingham
Five members of an eleven-strong smuggling gang were sentenced at Birmingham Crown Court for trying to bring 460 kg of cannabis from Thailand to Birmingham via Paris. The drugs, valued at £13.8 million, were found vacuum-packed in 22 suitcases in August 2024 after Apple AirTags linked the couriers to one account.
Cannabis 460 kgDevon woman jailed for 25 months for smuggling 51.2 kg of Thai cannabis
Amy Jayne Durban, 45, of Hemyock in Devon, was sentenced to 25 months in prison on 14 October 2026 for smuggling 51.2 kg of cannabis from Thailand. Border Force officers arrested her at Heathrow Airport in July with two suitcases of cannabis that the National Crime Agency said was worth at least £512,000.
Arrested 1Charged 1Cannabis 51.2 kgPrison 25 monthsFather and son jailed over £900,000 Glasgow Airport cannabis haul
Stephen Harding, 67, and his son Bradley, 37, were jailed at the High Court in Glasgow after admitting smuggling cannabis through Glasgow Airport from Thailand. Border Force stopped them with four cases holding dozens of vacuum-sealed packages that prosecutors valued at more than £903,000.
Arrested 2Charged 2Prison 2 years (Stephen Harding) and 3 years and 2 months (Bradley Harding)Swansea man jailed 11 years over 408 kg cannabis import
On 23 October 2025 Chelmsford Crown Court jailed Swansea man Karl Richter for 11 years for a 408 kg cannabis import from South Africa and a separate cocaine conspiracy. Officers had found the cannabis in March 2022 hidden inside a machine lathe in a crate at Tilbury Port.
Cannabis 408 kgPrison 11 yearsCash confiscated GBP 4,000Almost 27 tonnes of cannabis seized at UK airports in 2024
Border Force and the National Crime Agency seized 26,924 kg of cannabis from about 750 couriers flying into UK airports in 2024, nearly five times the 2023 total. Most couriers arrived from Thailand, Canada and the United States, recruited by organised crime groups exploiting legally grown foreign cannabis.
Arrested 750Cannabis 26.924 tFour jailed 26 years over 1.5 tonnes of cannabis in gari sacks
On 18 October 2024 Southwark Crown Court jailed four men for a combined 26 years over 1.5 tonnes of cannabis smuggled from Ghana in sacks of gari powder. Border Force found 2,335 packages in a container at Tilbury Docks after a National Crime Agency sting; two of the men were sentenced in their absence and remain at large.
Arrested 4Charged 4Cannabis 1.5 tPrison 26 years combined (10, 7, 5 and 4 years)£4,000 medicinal cannabis seized from Kent girl at airport
Border Force seized a three-month supply of THC oil from Emma Appleby at Southend Airport on 6 April 2019 after she flew in from the Netherlands with her nine-year-old daughter Teagan. Appleby, from Aylesham in Kent, had bought the medicine in The Hague for Teagan's severe epilepsy after doctors in the United Kingdom refused to prescribe THC.
Student jailed two years over 10 kg cannabis at Glasgow Airport
Zixian Long, 21, was caught with 10 kg of cannabis in a suitcase from Barcelona at Glasgow Airport on 31 December 2017. Convicted after trial at Paisley Sheriff Court, she was jailed for two years on 8 January 2019; her mother had been caught with 10 kg at Edinburgh Airport a day earlier.
Cannabis 10 kgPrison 2 yearsMalaysian man jailed 18 months over 10 kg cannabis at Edinburgh Airport
Border Force officers stopped Yong Keh Kee, 28, arriving from Madrid on 28 April 2017 and found ten vacuum-packed packages of cannabis in his suitcases. Valued at £100,000, the haul led to an 18-month sentence at Edinburgh Sheriff Court on 23 August.
Cannabis 10 kgPrison 18 monthsBorder Force seizes 1.1 tonnes of cannabis at London Gateway
Border Force officers seized 1.1 tonnes of cannabis from a Ghana-origin container at London Gateway on 12 September 2015. The 42 boxes of shrink-wrapped cannabis were valued at about £2.3 million and the case was passed to the National Crime Agency.
Cannabis 1.1 tTwo jailed over 28-tonne cannabis smuggling conspiracy
A judge at Luton Crown Court jailed John Wright for nine years and four months and Steven McDonald for eight years on 13 March 2015 for a seven-year conspiracy that brought more than 28 tonnes of cannabis into Britain from the Netherlands.
Convicted 2Border Force finds 540 kg of cannabis among potted plants at Felixstowe
Border Force officers found 540 kg of herbal cannabis in 68 boxes hidden among potted plants in a trailer from the Netherlands at Felixstowe on 4 October 2013. Two Dutch men were arrested and bailed while the National Crime Agency investigated.
Arrested 2Cannabis 540 kgLorry driver jailed for 107 kg of cannabis in counterweight
Canterbury Crown Court sentenced Newry lorry driver Seamus Keenan to three years on 20 May 2013 for trying to smuggle about 107 kilograms of cannabis resin through Dover hidden inside a machinery counterweight. Border Force officers had stopped his Irish-registered lorry at the Eastern Docks in January 2011 and found the drugs, valued at around 300,000 pounds.
Convicted 1Cannabis 107 kgPrison 3 yearsBorder Force seizes 430 kg of cannabis at Harwich port
Border Force officers found about 430 kg of cannabis in a lorry trailer that arrived at Harwich on a ferry from the Hook of Holland on 4 April 2013. Two Dutch men were arrested and bailed while investigations continued.
Arrested 2Cannabis 430 kg1.5 tonnes of Ghanaian cannabis seized at Heathrow
Border Force officers found about 1.5 tonnes of cannabis in three air-freight containers from Ghana at Heathrow on 24 September 2012, the airport's biggest cannabis seizure in over three years. Ghana's BNI picked up five narcotics-board officers over the shipment, and the alleged mastermind was arrested the next month.
Arrested 6Cannabis 1.5 t