More than 200 Brits are currently detained overseas in cannabis smuggling cases linked to Thailand alone, new data has revealed.
The Brits were recruited with promises of free holidays, easy money and ‘low risk’ opportunities.
Recruits are often told luggage destined for the UK contains clothes, gold or cash – when actually suitcases can contain up to 71kg of cannabis.
Penalties abroad can include decades in prison, life sentences, whipping, and, in some countries, the death penalty.
Consular cases involving British nationals arrested abroad for drug smuggling offences more than quadrupled between 2023 and 2025, according to Foreign Office figures.
New cases rose from just
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