Newsroom
With five months still left in the year, Cyprus police have already seized more cocaine than they did during all of 2025, along with a dramatic rise in hashish and a new opioid trend involving 60 kilos of poppy stalks.
Cyprus police are finding more cocaine, more hashish and even drugs they were barely seeing at all before, with authorities warning that traffickers are using everything from courier companies to travellers and shipping containers to get narcotics onto the island.
So far in 2026, the Drug Law Enforcement Unit, YKAN, has investigated 718 drug cases involving 773 people, and there are still five months left in the year.
But perhaps more telling than the number of cases is what police are finding.
Authorities have already seized approximately 83 kilograms of cocaine, compared with 51 kilograms during the whole of 2025, YKAN commander Christos Andreou told CNA.
Cannabis resin, or hashish, has also jumped sharply. Around 48 kilograms have been confiscated so far this year, compared with just two kilograms throughout 2025.
For comparison, YKAN investigated 1,114 cases and made 1,178 arrests during all of last year.
A drug police hadn't been seeing before
One of the more unusual developments this year involves poppy stalks, an opioid product that Andreou described as a new phenomenon for Cyprus authorities.
Police had recorded no such seizures last year.
This year, they have already investigated 17 cases, arrested 22 people and confiscated 60 kilograms of poppy stalks.
The first case appeared on June 19. Within days, nationwide operations were underway.
Investigators found that packages containing the poppy stalks had been sent from Austria through a courier company. Andreou said that following action by authorities, the company took measures aimed at preventing similar packages from being sent to Cyprus.
Cocaine up, cannabis down
Not every drug category is increasing.
Police have seized around 273 kilograms of cannabis so far this year, well below the 810 kilograms confiscated during the whole of 2025.
They have also found 34 cannabis plants, compared with 85 last year.
Around 2.5 kilograms of crystal methamphetamine have been seized this year, against roughly 6.5 kilograms in 2025.
Ecstasy seizures, meanwhile, stand at 333 tablets, already slightly above the 313 confiscated last year.
Captagon is another area causing concern. Police have seized 1,194 tablets so far this year, with Andreou saying authorities are particularly alert to the possibility of the drug being trafficked through the occupied areas.
Operations are continuing along the Green Line.
Drugs hidden in paper
Police are also encountering less conventional ways of moving narcotics.
This year, officers have seized around 1.5 kilograms and 993 sheets of paper impregnated with narcotic substances, something Andreou said was almost non-existent in last year's seizures.
Authorities have also confiscated doping substances, including 110 vials and 120 tablets.
From parcels to containers
According to Andreou, drugs detected in Cyprus have been traced to countries including Spain, Greece, the United States, and Canada, as well as European countries such as the Netherlands, Austria, and Belgium.
They can reach the island by courier, hidden in containers, or carried by travellers.
Andreou acknowledged that stopping every drug shipment entering Cyprus is virtually impossible.
Instead, he said YKAN's priority is to go after larger traffickers and significant quantities of drugs before they reach the market.
"The Service never becomes complacent," he said, adding that its officers operate around the clock.
For police, the changing figures offer a reminder that the drug market does not stand still. As authorities close one route or identify one method, traffickers appear to look for another, sometimes in places as ordinary as a courier parcel.
