Record Canadian Cannabis Seizures in Europe Prompt Calls for Action in Ottawa

Canadian-grown cannabis is turning up in record quantities at Europe's largest ports, nearly a decade after legalization at home, and European officials want Canada to help stop it. Belgian customs say 21 tonnes of Canadian cannabis were seized at the port of Antwerp in 2025, more than from any other country. That includes Morocco, which until recently was Europe's biggest source of illicit weed.

Officials told CBC News that smugglers are taking advantage of Canada's 2018 decision to legalize cannabis, moving it illegally across the ocean to a profitable market. "According to my information, it has to do with the policy of the Canadian government," said Kristian Vanderwaeren, director general of the Belgian Customs and Excise. He pointed to the scale of the opportunity: "320 million Europeans who have money to buy this."

The price gap explains the appeal. Europol says a kilo of Canadian marijuana sells wholesale for an average of about 4,100 euros ($6,429 Cdn) in the Netherlands and as much as 6,000 euros (about $9,408 Cdn) in the U.K., with street prices higher still. The RCMP puts the Canadian wholesale price of a kilo of dried cannabis at $1,000 to $1,500.

Vanderwaeren said he first noticed the increase in 2024. When seizures at Antwerp jumped in 2025, he declared a "red alert" and asked the Canada Border Services Agency for help. Rotterdam, Europe's biggest port, is also seeing more Canadian cannabis this year. CBSA confirmed a sustained rise in illegal export attempts since 2022, particularly to Europe, by cargo, mail and air passengers. The agency said it seized about 34 tonnes of cannabis products bound for export at maritime border points in 2025.

Belgium's first drug commissioner, Ine Van Wymersch, said the effects are visible on European streets. "This is a supply-driven market," she said, adding that criminal groups exploit a gray zone that Canada struggles to regulate. Appointed in 2023, she works under the protection of a security team. Brussels has recorded 74 shootings so far this year, which she said are mainly tied to cocaine but also to cannabis. She rejects the idea that Belgium is becoming a "narco state."

Europol says smugglers use the same shipping lines and criminal networks that already move cocaine through Antwerp and Rotterdam. The groups adapt quickly, it said, and may route containers via the U.S. or the Caribbean. For the first time, marijuana seizures at Antwerp have overtaken those of cocaine. "Smuggling is like surfing," Vanderwaeren said. "You have to find the wave."

CBC News was given access to customs inspections in Antwerp. In February, a container supposedly holding a family's belongings for a move to France drew suspicion because of two juke boxes with their electronics removed. Inside were packages of marijuana. In another case, scanner images of what should have been pallets of wooden fire briquettes looked darker at the edges. Agents found crates of vacuum-packed, one-kilogram pouches of cannabis behind the facade. Only one to two per cent of the port's equivalent of 13.5 million 20-foot containers a year are inspected, said customs spokesperson Sara Van Cotthem. In Berlin, a court recently convicted ten men of smuggling Canadian marijuana to Germany, sentencing the three main defendants to between six and a half and 15 years. They had used a front company to ship 1.1 tonnes in containers declared as timber.

Since his appeal, Vanderwaeren said, seizures have dipped slightly in recent months, though totals remain high, and he credits stepped-up CBSA efforts. The customs heads of Canada, Belgium, France and the Netherlands have signed a letter of intent to cooperate against smugglers. Europol cautioned that the potency and low production cost of North American cannabis, combined with European demand, means the trade will likely persist and could grow, with profits funding other crime. CBSA said Canada respects its international drug treaty obligations and that the Cannabis Act prohibits other imports and exports.

Belgian officials stress they are not blaming Canada, though Vanderwaeren said Canadians should consider whether policy has unintentionally been "sponsoring criminal organizations" through the profits it enables. Van Wymersch called the problem "glocal," both local and global. "It will not help us to blame each other. Because we need each other," she said.