Khat Trafficking

The illegal smuggling of khat, a flowering plant chewed as a mild stimulant, from countries where its cultivation and sale remain legal, chiefly Ethiopia, Somalia, Djibouti and Yemen, into countries across Europe, North America and the Asia-Pacific region where it is a controlled or banned substance. European enforcement has intercepted substantial quantities: Norway seized ten metric tons of khat in 2010, up from less than four tons in 2006, and Swedish police confiscate roughly nine tonnes a year, while the United Kingdom reported around twenty tonnes of khat arriving daily at Heathrow Airport before banning the substance in 2014. North American authorities report similarly significant interdiction, with Canadian officials naming khat the most common illegal drug smuggled through the country's airports as of 2008 and the United States Drug Enforcement Administration seizing shipments in 2006. Enforcement disrupts but does not eliminate the trade: after the United Kingdom's 2014 ban, the price of a bundle of khat rose from about three pounds to about thirty pounds, reflecting the supply disruption caused by prohibition, with smuggling routes typically originating in Ethiopia and Kenya and terminating among diaspora communities in destination countries.