CUSTOMS officials seized more than £10,000 worth of tobacco, cigarettes and alcohol in a 24-hour operation in the Swindon area.

Two lorry drivers were also caught using illegal agricultural diesel and face fines of more than £1,000.

Lorries, vans and some cars were stopped by Wiltshire Police at junction 15 of the M4 and escorted to a nearby gritting depot.

There, teams of customs intelligence, excise fraud and anti-smuggling officers searched vehicles with sniffer dogs and special x-ray scanners.

The crackdown, dubbed Operation Caper, was also carried out at four other locations in the region from 7am on Thursday to 7am yesterday at the M4 at Bristol, the M5 at Tewkes-bury, the M5 at Exeter and the A31 road at Ringwood, Hampshire.

It was the largest operation of its kind ever undertaken in the South West, and it involved a total of 160 Customs officers and more than 100 motorway police officers.

The officers' brief was to detect a variety of illegal activity, including checking safety faults, drivers' hours, documentation, road fuel offences and stolen goods.

But the main priority was to search for contraband tobacco, alcohol and drugs, which are regularly transported along the M4 by smugglers to dealers in the West.

Customs spokeswoman Shona Lowe said the exercise was affected by the poor weather, but she said officers had been delighted at the way they and detectives had worked together.

She said 450 vehicles were searched.

Five of them were seized under powers given to customs officials to confiscate the possessions of those attempting to smuggle contraband.

The two lorry drivers who were arrested by the police had their lorries taken away initially, but returned later.

Ms Lowe said: "It was success in every way and we will be repeating the exercise in the future."