Seizures of ketamine and cannabis by the Border Force reached an all-time high in the year to March 2025, according to new Home Office figures. Overall, almost 150 tonnes of illegal drugs were seized, 40 per cent up on the previous year and the largest amount since records began.
Border Force and police forces intercepted drugs on almost 270,000 occasions, a 24 per cent increase on the previous year, including more than 60,000 seizures of cannabis and almost 24,000 seizures of cocaine. Ketamine seizures increased by 55 per cent to 1.3 tonnes, while there was a more than 2,000 per cent increase in nitrous oxide seizures, following the banning of the substance as a class C drug in November 2023. The total value of drugs seized was £2.6bn, the Home Office says.
All classes of drugs saw an increase in the number of seizures, with class A seizures up by 8 per cent, class B by almost 30 per cent and class C  by nearly 40 per cent. Cannabis seizures increased by 28 per cent, with the drug remaining the most seized substance, followed by powder cocaine. Organised crime gangs are increasingly using expensive equipment to conceal drugs ‘in the hope that law enforcement will be deterred by the potential costs involved with destroying it’, the Home Office states, with one gang hiding a tonne of cocaine in two industrial generators valued at £720,000.
A recent report from the InSight Crime think tank said that while record-breaking seizures of cocaine were now ‘the norm’ across the world, these ‘multi-ton interdictions likely made only a small dent in what has become one of the most lucrative and violent industries for Latin American organised crime’.
Last year also saw the Border Force become the first agency in the world to use specially trained dogs to detect fentanyl and nitazenes at border crossings. ‘Every seizure strikes a blow at the heart of organised crime and stops dangerous drugs from inflicting misery on our communities,’ said Home Office minister Mike Tapp.
Seizures of drugs in England and Wales, financial year ending 2025 available here