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Cannabis smuggling from Thailand to the UK is reaching record levels, drug couriers have warned

At a Thai port, customs officials laid out a 1.4-ton load of dried cannabis bricks and pre-rolled joints, complete with “Premium” labels and Bob Marley stickers – all packaged and ready for shipment to the intended market: Great Britain.
Since Thailand When the country became the first Asian country to decriminalize cannabis two years ago, British ports and airports recorded a surge in drug seizures smuggled from the kingdom.

In the last two weeks alone, more than 260kg of cannabis has been discovered in the suitcases of passengers arriving from Bangkok at UK airports. Two Malaysians were among those arrested, adding to a growing list of at least 90 compatriots arrested at the UK's borders this year for cannabis-related offenses.

The British National Crime Agency (NCA) warns that organized crime groups are increasingly cultivating cannabis in Thailand Canada And the United Stateswhere high quality, high strength buds can be grown legally and at a fraction of what it would cost to produce them in the UK.

This profitability allows these groups to easily offset the costs of smuggling, whether through containers or by employing couriers, while minimizing the risks associated with operating UK-based grow houses.

A cannabis farm or grow house has been discovered by police in the UK. Photo: National Crime Agency/Handout

But anyone who succumbs to the lure of quick money and is caught smuggling cannabis, which is still plentiful and legal in Thailand, could face up to 14 years in prison in Britain for drug trafficking.

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