Belgian Customs Seizes Record 21 Tonnes of Canadian Cannabis

European ports have become a major entry point for Canadian marijuana, creating a lucrative black market for criminal networks. In 2025, Belgian customs officials seized a record-breaking 21 tonnes of cannabis at the port of Antwerp, a volume that exceeded illegal exports from every other country, including Morocco, which was previously Europe's largest supplier of illicit weed.

The surge is driven by a substantial price difference between the two markets. According to Europol, the average wholesale price for a kilogram of Canadian marijuana is approximately 4,100 Euros in the Netherlands and up to 6,000 Euros in the United Kingdom. In contrast, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police estimate the domestic wholesale price in Canada sits between 1,000 and 1,500 Canadian dollars. Kristian Vanderwaeren, the director general of the Belgian Customs and Excise, noted that criminals are capitalizing on the 2018 legalization of cannabis in Canada to tap into the profitable European market. "It has to do with the policy of the Canadian government," Vanderwaeren said. He added that the 320 million Europeans with disposable income represent an immense market.

Smugglers are using increasingly inventive methods to hide the product in shipping containers. One case involved a container that arrived in February, ostensibly filled with a family's household belongings for a move to France. Customs agents noticed two juke boxes that had been stripped of their electrical components. Inside the hollow machines, they found packages of marijuana. In another instance, agents detected a darker anomaly in X-ray images of a shipment labeled as wooden fire briquettes. The briquettes were actually a facade hiding crates of vacuum-packed, one-kilogram pouches of cannabis. Sara Van Cotthem, a communications officer with Belgian customs, stated that her colleagues identified the irregularities through a combination of scanners, dogs, and intuition. The port processes 13.5 million 20-foot containers annually, but only one to two percent are physically inspected.

The Canada Border Services Agency confirmed that intelligence indicates a sustained increase in illegal export attempts since 2022, particularly to Belgium, the Netherlands, Germany, and France. In 2025, CBSA agents seized about 34 tonnes of cannabis products intended for export at maritime border points. A letter of intent was signed between the heads of customs in Canada, Belgium, France, and the Netherlands to improve cooperation. Ine Van Wymersch, Belgium's drug commissioner, described the issue as a "glocal" problem that requires action at both local and global levels. She noted that while the violence in Brussels is often linked to cocaine, cannabis is also a driving factor in the criminal economy. "We can't be naive," Van Wymersch said. "These criminal gangs, they don't have any values."

Europol reports that criminal networks are adapting to obstacles by rerouting containers through the United States or the Caribbean. The agency stated that the high potency and low production cost of North American cannabis ensure the illicit trade will likely persist. In a recent trial in Berlin, ten men were convicted for smuggling 1.1 tonnes of cannabis from Canada to Germany using a front company and shipping containers labeled as timber. The three main defendants received prison sentences ranging from six and a half to 15 years. Vanderwaeren observed a slight decrease in seizures in recent months, which he attributes to the increased efforts by the CBSA.