A series of raids are to be carried out by trading standards officers, targeting people who counterfeit DVDs.

West Yorkshire Trading Standards threw its weight behind a national campaign to crack the illegal trade today as an anti-piracy drive was launched to coincide with the cinema release on Friday of Spider-Man 2.

The blockbuster is considered a prime target for DVD pirates who will copy the film by sitting in a cinema with a camcorder. Poor quality counterfeits of the film are then put on DVD and sold at car boot sales and markets.

Paul Smith, West Yorkshire Trading Standards principal officer, urged people not to buy pirated copies because money from their sale was used to buy drugs and firearms.

Mr Smith said trading standards officers would be carrying out raids on properties and at sales and markets across Bradford in the coming weeks to catch the major players.

He said: "People may feel that this is a crime which doesn't harm anybody but we have the information and the experience to know that the people involved with this are into more serious crime.

"These raids will be carried out thanks to confidential information but also down to our surveillance techniques.

"I can assure these DVD pirates that our work will lead to many prosecutions and heavy fines."

Mr Smith said officers had carried out a number of raids in Bradford this year, including one where £120,000 worth of pirated DVDs had been discovered, along with drugs and a substantial amount of cash.

And he said more than £1 million of fake DVDs were seized across the county last year.

According to a report published by the Industry Trust for Intellectual Property Awareness yesterday, DVD piracy is nationally more profitable than drug trafficking, with one kilogram of pirated discs being valued at more than one kilogram of cannabis resin.

And terrorists, people-traffickers and paramilitaries are among the organised crime groups behind the £500 million industry, according to Interpol.

A spokesman for the Industry Trust for Intellectual Property Awareness said: "We want to shatter the illusion of DVD pirates as harmless 'Del Boy' characters.

"It is an attractive option for organised crime groups, who use the trade in DVD piracy to launder cash and fund other forms of crime."

Mr Smith said trading standards officers recovered hundreds of copies of the latest Harry Potter DVD when the film was released last month.

"We are taking a zero tolerance approach to this and will come down heavily on anyone we find selling or manufacturing counterfeit DVDs," he said.

Nationally, seizures of pirate DVDs in the first half of 2004 increased by 207 per cent compared to the same period last year, and have quadrupled since 2002. The value of the illegal trade is estimated at £400 to £500 million and is expected to exceed £1 billion within the next three years.