UK drug alert as record 28 tonnes of cocaine and 74 tonnes of cannabis seized

A record 28 tonnes of cocaine was seized last year as Britain’s drugs crisis intensified.

The Home Office said Border Force and police forces confiscated 28.27 tonnes of cocaine, up 52% on the previous year.

In total, more than £3 billion worth of cocaine, heroin, crack cocaine, cannabis and ketamine was taken off the streets in the year to March.

Home Office figures, published on Thursday, revealed Border Force seized over 74 tonnes of herbal cannabis last year.

Officials said this was the largest quantity since records began in 1973, and a 58% increase from the previous year.  

Minister for Migration and Citizenship Seema Malhotra said: “We are clear in our determination to protect the public from illegal drugs which pose a threat to people’s lives.  

“I’d like to thank our dedicated Border Force officers who work tirelessly to seize illegal drugs, alongside our police forces and NCA, who keep them off our streets and the public safe.  

“These statistics send a clear message to organised criminal gangs that they will be caught and face the full force of the law if they try to smuggle drugs into our country.” 

Around half of murders are linked to drugs, analysis has revealed.

Police chiefs have warned the threat drugs pose to the UK has intensified, with cocaine production at record highs.

And the figures, published by the Home Office, illustrate how organised crime gangs are trying to flood Britain’s streets with cocaine.

Border Force intercepted a record 105.73 tonnes of drugs, which is the “highest weight” seized since records began

A number of factors are behind the explosive growth in consumption of cocaine, including record levels of global production and the drug’s changing image.

While prices have remained virtually unchanged — a gram of cocaine cost £55 in 2023, compared to £50 in 2011 — the purity of cocaine is on the rise, with 73 percent in 2023 compared to 46 percent in 2011.

Some 253,000 hectares in Colombia were planted with coca leaf in 2023, a UN report said, up from 230,000 in 2022.

That saw cocaine production soar 53% to 2,644 metric tons, compared with 1,738 metric tons a year earlier.

More than 400 people have died after taking super-strength opioids, shocking figures revealed on Wednesday.

The Home Office admitted the death toll could rise further over the coming years amid fears crime gangs are trying to import more nitazenes.

Policing Minister Dame Diana Johnson said she is “concerned about the growing presence of these drugs” and vowed to take action.

New legislation came into force on Wednesday banning xylazine, as well as several other synthetic drugs, that can be hundreds of times stronger than heroin.