In the same period the amount of cannabis seized has gone up from two to 15 tonnes.
Officials say most of the couriers, who can be paid up to £10,000, are arriving from countries which have legalised cannabis for personal use and are allowing cultivation.
Hundreds of cannabis couriers have been caught trying to smuggle suitcases full of the drug through British airports.
They are being duped by traffickers into thinking the UK authorities are soft on cannabis and will let them off with a fine, according to the National Crime Agency.
A man who landed from Los Angeles with 158 kilos of the Class-B drug – with a street value of £1m – in his and his children’s bags was jailed for more than three years in July.
Eleven British passengers from Thailand were arrested this month at Birmingham airport when Border Force officials allegedly found 510 kilos of cannabis in their bags.
Charles Yates, the NCA’s deputy director, said: “It’s quite brazen. Couriers are just walking through the airports with suitcases full of cannabis, thinking they are not going to be detected and if they are all they will get is a fine.
“The reality is very different and we are making many arrests and seeing couriers go to jail. The figures have risen dramatically in the past couple of years.”
There were 17 such arrests in 2022, 136 last year and already this year there have been 378 so far. In the same period the amount of cannabis seized has gone up from two to 15 tonnes.
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