They get almost all their info on "trafficking dangerous drugs" from Intelligence - TBH you carrying in a kilo of cocaine in your briefcase thru T5 and it wouldn't even make the needle flicker on UK drug imports - most of it apparently comes in in containers - in tons.
Occasionaly they'll bust an obvious case but it's mainly to generate headlines to put people off.
In years of traveliing I've seen 3 definite busts and one who looked dogy as hell but got through . Three of the cases were intelligence led - they knew in two cases EXACTLY who they wanted, ID'd them on deplaning and fell on them in Customs. The third case they just shunted all the male pax into the red channel until they found the guilty man. I've spent some time over the years in US "follow the red line " corrals - but most of my fellow visitors looked like Immigration cases
Last edited by Asturias56; 29th March 2026 at 16:35.