To avoid detection, traffickers conceal drugs in containers packed with rice, tea, sugar, containers of second-hand clothes as well as used motor vehicle parts.
Research reveals that drug mules are often motivated by poverty, debt or coercion. They are predominantly male, though recent trends show an increase in female mules.
They typically carry large quantities of drugs chosen and concealed by 'investors', often without fully knowing the substance or amount.
Harsh sentences based on drug quantity disproportionately punish the most exploited individuals in the drug trade, and are ineffective as a deterrent as mules often have no control over the quantity or destination of the drugs they carry.
Thousands of British nationals are charged with drug smuggling abroad every year. The UK charity Prisoners Abroad reports a rise in the number of British people imprisoned abroad for drug offences in 2024-25, compared to the previous year, especially women under 34.
Two recent examples making headlines are Bella May Culley, an 18-year-old woman from County Durham, and Charlotte May Lee, a 21-year-old from south London. Culley was arrested in Georgia with 14 kilos of cannabis. Lee was arrested in Sri Lanka, with 46 kilos of synthetic cannabis (she has denied knowing it was in her bag and has yet to be charged).
