I was on the frontline of Border Force’s drug mule crackdown

A GROUP of lads headed on holiday make it through security and, within seconds, they are stopped by a Border Force agent. 

Not because they’re in trouble, but because the cops are doing their best to make sure no Brits get conned into becoming a cannabis mule. 

I was on the frontline with Border Force for Operation Karetu in Birmingham Airport as they try to keep youngsters safe as they head abroad. 

Once the lads have been warned of the risks, they’re handed an-antispike device to stop anyone slipping things in their drinks while they party in Thailand. 

Then Border Force’s Kate Goldstone makes a beeline for Wetherspoon’s where she knows more teens and young adults will be having a few pints before catching a flight. 

Across the airport, The Sun joins drug dog River as he clambers over bags on the conveyor belt to check no one has attempted to smuggle drugs in their suitcase. 

The two-year-old Spaniel has been working for just six months, and has already found Class A drugs when on duty at a post office. 

Once he’s checked the first flight, he’s rewarded with a kong toy, and plenty of belly rubs as well. 

On the way out of baggage claim, officers are searching suitcases that have caught their attention. One is stacked with black packing cubes, and its owner asks, “What are you looking for?” 

It can be anything from cigarettes to drugs, or in some cases a random spot search.

Drug dealers have pivoted tactics from targeting glam girls on Instagram to looking for lads on their first holiday to bring back cannabis. 

Often they’re offered free business class flights to Thailand with £10,000 spending money when they land – in return for a small favour. 

“Organised crime groups are now targeting young men, and we see them trying to smuggle cannabis through airports the most now,” said Kate, from Border Force’s National Safeguarding and Modern Slavery Team.

“These groups target someone who may be naive to travel, they’ve never done it before. It might be their first holiday.

“They also look for people who are struggling to find work, or those in low-income work, and then they offer these free holidays.

“It’s sold as business class flights followed by ten days in Thailand. It sounds beautiful. 

“But at the end they’ll ask their target to take a suitcase back with them. 

“In some cases they claim it’s phones, or tell them not to look in the suitcase and not to worry because ‘you won’t get caught’

“I’m here to tell you that you will get caught. We will find you and a lot of young people only have the realisation of what they’ve done when the cuffs go on.”

International drug smuggling can result in a jail term of up to 14 years in the UK, but in some other countries, like Sri Lanka, it can be a death sentence. 

It takes minutes for The Sun to find TikTok adverts offering free holidays to Thailand for a small ‘totally legal’ favour which is actually bringing home a suitcase stuffed with cannabis – an international drug smuggling offence. 

Other adverts promise potential mules “you won’t get caught” and tempts potential victims with videos of Rolex watches, stacks of cash and scenery from Thailand. 

The Sun joined Border Force during their annual Operation Karetu which is focused on safeguarding youngsters as they head out on their summer holidays.

This year, the focus is on cannabis smuggling as to date 600 mules have been arrested in airports in 2026 alone. 

Border Force has already put in place safeguarding for tearful young holiday-makers who have told them they’ve been targeted to bring something back to Britain. 

Earlier this week in Birmingham, The Sun saw officers as they interacted with passengers heading out to Thailand to warn them of the dangers of agreeing to bring drugs home. 

On the other side of the airport in arrivals, bags from Doha and Dubai are having special attention paid to them as often mules are on these flights on their way home. 

Clambering over the arriving luggage on a baggage carousel is English springer spaniel River, 2, who is sniffing out drugs. 

Last year, Border Force seized more than 167,000kg of herbal cannabis, which has an estimated street value of more than £2bn.

It’s the highest amount ever recorded and is a 54 per cent increase on 2024. 

The gigantic haul, which is equivalent to two fully loaded passenger guests, included 28 tonnes of marijuana brought into the UK in suitcases by 800 couriers who were arrested by the National Crime Agency (NCA). 

Four years ago in 2022, Border Force seized just 2.1tonnes of cannabis from people bringing it though the airports. 

The rise in weed smuggling from Thailand comes after the country decriminalised possession – but smuggling still faces hefty fines, with the average being around £17,700.

The NCA revealed more than three drug mules a day are being stopped at customs as they return from Thailand with suitcases packed with the Class C drugs.

While possession of cannabis is legal in Thailand, drug smuggling charges can be brought against Brits the second they check a case in at the airport to come home, Kate warns. 

“If you are in Thailand and you’ve been approached to take something back, or if you’ve found yourself in a really vulnerable situation and you’re not sure what to do, contact the Consulate before you travel out” Kate said. 

“If you check in your luggage, that is an offence. That’s when it begins. So what we want you to do is get help before you get to that.

“They’re there to help.”

Fines brought in last month means Brits can be fined per kilo of cannabis they’re caught trying to smuggle out of Thailand. 

It can be anything from £10,000 to £14,000 according to Border Force, and those who can’t pay are thrown into prison. 

“At the moment we have got 20 British nationals locked up in Thailand because they haven’t paid those fines,” Kate said. 

“This isn’t just being caught with ‘low-key’ cannabis. This is international drug smuggling and you will pay a heavy price if you’re found.”

Beki Wright, Head of the National Crime Agency’s Borders Threat Team, said: “Our law enforcement partners in Thailand are very experienced and very skilled at spotting who might be carrying cannabis at the airport.

“Any foreign national arrested will now face a huge fine to leave the country, and the criminals who arranged the couriers’ trips will simply abandon them.

“Failure to pay the fine will result in up to two years in a Thai prison.”

Last year, drug mule Bella Culley, then 18, made headlines across the globe after being arrested and jailed in Georgia for attempting to smuggle 12 kilograms (26.5 pounds) of marijuana and 2 kilograms (4.4 pounds) of hashish from Thailand.

The teen, from Billingham, County Durham, claimed that she had been tortured and forced into transporting the drugs, and it came out during the trial that she was pregnant. 

Her family and a lawyer secured her a plea-deal and she was released and sent back to the UK after five months and 24 days in custody at Georgia’s Rustavi Prison Number Five.

Last December, young mum Poppie Kudiersky, 22, was spared jail after trying to smuggle £285,000 worth of cannabis into Manchester airport in February 2024.

In April, influencer Ellie Crampsie, was jailed for 16 months for attempting to smuggle £150,000 worth of cannabis through Glasgow Airport from Thailand.

The constant media coverage of the women has made them ‘hot’ for organised crime who want to keep themselves under the radar. 

One smuggler, known as Zee, told the BBC he expects most of his mules to be caught by cops. 

He said: “We get them a return ticket to Bangkok from a travel agent we use in India so it can’t be traced. Then we show them a good time – take them to Pattaya, get them girls, mushrooms, coke, whatever they want.

“Then when they’re so intoxicated and have had three or four days of partying, it’s time for them to do what they came for. So we just put it on them: ‘Take these bags’.”

He added: “Once it’s done and picked up they’ll get 10 grand. And then the word spreads.

“If I send 10 through and nine get caught, I’ll still make a profit.”

Cannabis was present in 93 per cent of all drugs seized by Border Force in the year ending March 2025, with over 62,000 illegal imports intercepted.