Officers say smugglers make the change because the law is lighter and profits can be bigger.

In response Customs have announced a Christmas crackdown on shops, pubs and clubs selling smuggled alcohol and tobacco in the run-up to festive season.

Operation Mistletoe will target retailers throughout the UK who cost the Treasury an estimated £1bn a year in lost revenue by selling bootlegged goods.

Home Affairs Correspondent Jane Peel: "Drug smugglers have moved on to alcohol and tobacco"

Officers say the "seasonal slam" will involve "repeated raids" on gangs who smuggle and their outlets.

Diana Barrett, head of anti-smuggling operations, said Customs and Excise were: "determined to cause widespread disruption to people involved in this crime".

She said: "It is unfair to honest retailers and is costing the taxpayer millions.

"Smugglers and fraudsters will find that not only may their goods be seized immediately by Customs, but that we will be using all options available to prosecute or revoke licences."

The operation comes after the government's Comprehensive Spending Review recommended that Customs and Excise should get an extra £35m funding over three years to tackle smuggling. Chancellor Gordon Brown re-allocated the money in July,

Success on business-like drug criminals

Customs say they have been more successful tackling drugs dealers - with the announcement that they broke up or disrupted 131 gangs last year.

But in a sign that criminals are getting more business-like drugs are being supplied to order.

People who buy contraband goods are helping the smugglers say Customs officers

They say that importers will request a particular combination of drugs in a telephone call and that the supplier then dispatches them in a single consignment.

But Customs were glad to announce a massive increase in seizures of Class A such as cocaine and heroin in southern England in the past year.

A total of £35.56m worth of drugs was seized of which 37% were class A drugs, including cocaine and heroin, compared to the 9% seized in the previous year.

Customs spokesman Bob Gaiger said operations had been concentrated more on Class A drugs, although not to the exclusion of other types.

"Some smuggling organisations favour different types of drugs and employ different methods. It is an ever changing picture, and this is one of the difficulties in keeping one step ahead of the smugglers.

"We have taken out smugglers on the high seas, and that must send out a message to smuggling organisations that they are no longer safe off the coast of Spain," he said.

Moving on from drugs

Ranald MacDonald of Customs told BBC News that many of those who smuggled "massive" quantities of alcohol and tobacco have moved on from drug smuggling.

"These are highly organised dangerous criminals who are moving into the smuggling of huge quantities of tobacco and alcohol into this country because the difference in duty rates with our near neighbours in Europe is such that the profitability is very great for them.

Criminal smugglers bring in 'huge' quantities of goods and sell them illegally

"They perceive a lower risk than drug smuggling from which many of them have turned."

The new measures included:

• More than 100 extra Customs officers stationed throughout the country
• More robust use of criminal prosecution powers
• Improved tracking of goods

As a result of the financial review, Customs was set a target of an £80m increase in the revenue value of detected alcohol and tobacco fraud over the next three years.

In 1997, Customs seized smuggled goods with a revenue value of £76m.

Mike Ripley, a spokesman for the Brewers and Licensed Retailers Association, welcomed the crackdown.

"It is estimated that we have a least 1.5 million pints of beer crossing the channel into this country every day. Customs and Excise estimate that 70% of that will be sold on.

"It has got to be stopped and now is the time, October and November is when the smugglers start stocking up for Christmas.

"But the real answer to this problem rests with the government which insists on taxes on alcohol which are not just out of line, but way out of line with our European neighbours.