UK Border Force and police officers seized over 119 tonnes of illegal drugs with a street value of £3 billion ($3.5 billion) in the year to last March, the biggest haul since records began, the government said on Thursday.

The quantity of drugs seized across England and Wales was up 52 percent on the previous year, according to Home Office figures.

The drugs confiscated between the beginning of April 2023 and the end of March 2024 included a record 28 tonnes of cocaine and 74 tonnes of cannabis in over 210,000 seizures by police and Border Force officers, the ministry said.

“These statistics send a clear message to organised criminal gangs that they will be caught and face the full force of the law if they try to smuggle drugs into our country,” said migration minister Seema Malhotra.

The UK on Wednesday announced a ban on more than 20 “dangerous substances” including xylazine, a veterinary anaesthetic which combined with opioids has been wreaking havoc for several years in the United States.

The ban is part of “stepped up” efforts “to combat the increasing drug threat and make our streets safer”, by allowing courts to pass heavier sentences on traffickers, the Home Office said.

Border Force dogs were also being trained to detect fentanyl and a range of nitazenes, strong synthetic opioids, it added.