The UK, like most countries in the world, has a wide network of criminal drug distributors, but how do these drugs get into our country in the first place?
Despite COVID restrictions, drug smuggling is still alive and well in the UK. The process starts with criminal gangs producing illegal drugs in their country of origin, and ends with them being sold on our streets. To make the transition from production to sale, they have to be smuggled into the country.
Smuggling drugs into the UK isn’t a simple process as there are lots of countries producing them, and lots of different methods used to get them into the UK. There are also many barriers to overcome once the drugs make it there.
In this post, we’re going to break down that process by looking at where these drugs come from, how they’re smuggled into the UK, and how many actually make it onto the streets.
Where Do the UK’s Drugs Come From?
Before illegal drugs ever make it to the shores of the UK, they have to be produced somewhere. From the production all the way through the supply chain, organised crime groups compete with each other to be the top supplier.
Every country involved in illegal drug production produces and supplies different types of illegal drugs, but they also have their own specialisms:
- Afghanistan accounts for over 90 percent of the world’s heroin consumption.
- The Netherlands produce ecstasy and other synthetic drugs.
- Colombia is the world’s biggest producer of cocaine.
- The Caribbean produces large amounts of crack and cannabis.
Each one of these drugs is smuggled into the UK via different methods, which we’ll get into in the next section.
How Are They Smuggled into the UK?
To be able to smuggle illegal drugs on a large scale into the UK, there has to be corruption at every stage of the supply chain.
This includes enlisting the help of employees at ports and borders, weakening the integrity of border security and increasing the risk of other forms of trafficking, including firearms and organised immigration crime.
There are various methods used to smuggle the drugs into the UK, with the most common ones being:
- Container shipping
- Yachts and small boats
- Light aircraft
- Vehicle traffic from continental Europe
- Airline passengers
- The post and fast parcels
Many of these trafficking methods involve the recruitment of vulnerable people as mules – often at great risk to their lives and welfare. Also, each of the countries we listed in the last section of this post have their preferred methods of smuggling.
Heroin, for example, is transported from Afghanistan through old USSR countries, then to Turkey and is either driven to Europe or Greece before it makes its way into the UK via the ports. Crack, on the other hand, is flown straight into the UK from the Caribbean.
One high profile case back in 2018 found one man, Columbian Camilo Pulido Suarez, smuggling a 5.9kg package of cocaine worth £480,000 in his hands.
The drugs plan was unravelled by NCA officials when they realised one key staff member, Farhan Iqbal, was always working on the day drugs were successfully imported into the UK.
They were able to track where he’d used his pass card, so they knew where he’d been and when. After finding the packaging for a razor on Iqbal’s person that matched a razor carried by Suarez, he was arrested for being an inside mine for the Colombian drugs cartel.
How Many of These Drugs Actually Make it Onto the UK’s Streets?
With all these different smuggling approaches, it’s difficult to imagine that the UK is able to make a dent in the amount of drugs that make it onto their streets.
The National Crime Agency (NCA) are the primary force involved in stopping drugs from entering the UK. The director of the agency, Nikki Holland, told the PA news agency back in 2019 that while investigators had uncovered large hauls of drugs, vast amounts still make it onto the streets.
Despite seizing nearly 1.3 tonnes of heroin in Felixstowe on 30 August 2019, the largest seizure of heroin ever made in the UK, the NCA director said county lines dealers are still dealing. This means there must be a huge number of drugs smuggled into the UK.
What Happens When These Drugs Make it into the UK?
Once these drugs actually make it into the UK, they can cause serious harm to the country as a whole. According to the NCA, there more than 4,500 serious and organised crime groups in the UK who cost the economy £37 billion every year.
These gangs include county lines drug dealers, who sell crack and heroin through an estimated 2,000 individual phone lines. Each of these lines can generate up to £800,000 a year. It is thought that every police force in England and Wales is affected by their activity.
To help the NCA tackle the growing drug problem in the UK, the director asked for the annual budget to be doubled from £475 million to almost £1 billion. A review has been announced but, so far, the agency has only received a £20 million increase in their budget.
What Are the Key Elements of Drug Smuggling into the UK?
In this post, we’ve shared where the drugs smuggled into the UK come from, and how they’re smuggled in. We’ve also discussed how many of the drugs are actually seized before they make it onto the streets, and what issues these drugs can cause.
Drug smuggling is a complex system that involves organised crime, and corruption of trusted officials. It is an uphill battle of UK law enforcement agencies desperately trying to get keep illegal drugs off the streets.
The NCA have a lot of difficult work to do which could be improved by an increased budget, but the likelihood is that some drugs will still make it through the cracks. As long as there is money to be made in drugs, there will be people trying their hardest to make it.
Photo credits:
Hand holding cannabis – Photo by Sharon McCutcheon on Unsplash
Shipping containers – Photo by Ian Taylor on Unsplash
Handcuffs – Photo by Bill Oxford on Unsplash
Leave a Reply