£5m Birmingham Airport cannabis bust as passengers arriving from three locations handed warning

Eleven Brits had travelled from Thailand were arrested at the airport after a total of 510 kilos of cannabis was found in 28 suitcases

A £5 million cannabis haul was uncovered at Birmingham Airport in just one day at the height of the summer holiday travel season. The huge 510 kilo stash was found in 28 suitcases on August 9, leading to the arrest of 11 British travellers who flew in from Thailand via Paris Charles de Gaulle.

All were bailed until November 9. The case prompted the National Crime Agency to issue a warning that drug smugglers faced hefty jail sentences if they were caught after a huge increase in arrests involving flights arriving from Thailand, Canada and the United States.

So far this year, 378 people have been arrested in connection with cannabis smuggling by air passengers. An estimated 15 tonnes of the drug was detected and seized at UK airports in the same period – already around three times more than in the whole of 2023, when around five tonnes of cannabis was seized and 136 people were arrested.

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The 2024 total is also a staggering increase on the two tonnes seized in 2022. More than half of those arrested in 2023, 71, had flown in from US airports, 24 from Thailand and the same number from Canada.

Around half of all arrests this year, 184, related to cannabis that originated in Thailand, while 75 arrests related to cannabis originating from Canada, and 47 to cannabis from the US. People travelling with the drugs as couriers reported being told by their recruiters that they were only risking a fine if caught.

In reality the maximum sentence for cannabis importation in the UK is up to 14 years in prison. This year 196 people have already been convicted and handed sentences totalling almost 188 years.

Passengers were most often found to be carrying between 15 and 40 kilos of cannabis inside their checked-in luggage.

In one case, 51-year-old Spainard Fernando Mayans Fuster was caught at Manchester Airport with eight suitcases containing 158 kilos of the drug, after arriving on a flight from Los Angeles in May this year. It was believed to be one of the largest passenger seizures of its kind at Manchester.

Mayans Fuster was jailed for three years and four months at Manchester Minshull Street Crown Court on July 19.

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NCA experts said the trend was being fuelled by organised crime gangs with access to cannabis grown in locations where it is legal, and recruiting couriers to transport it to the UK where it can generate greater profit. Director general of threats James Babbage said: “In some cases it is unclear whether the mules knew what the potential penalties are but in most cases they were operating on behalf of organised criminal gangs.

“And it is those couriers who are running the risk of a potentially life-changing prison sentence. Gangs can make significant profits by selling and smuggling perceived high-quality cannabis legally grown in the USA, Canada and Thailand illegally in the UK.

“The NCA is actively working with partners like Border Force in the UK, and law enforcement internationally to target those involved in drug supply, including the networks behind it. Targeting those smugglers who play a crucial role in the supply chain is one way we can do that.”

“We would appeal to anyone who is approached to engage in smuggling to think very carefully about the potential consequences of their actions, and the risks they will run.

“We know organised criminals can be persuasive, and offer to pay couriers. But the risks of getting caught are high, and it just isn’t worth that risk.”