A smuggler disguised 48,000 cans of beer as Pepsi in a desperate bid to get alcohol into Saudi Arabia.

Customs officials said the cans, which were part of a consignment labelled 'soft drinks', arrived at the Al Batha border crossing via truck.

Footage shows a worker inspecting one of the cases before slicing its plastic wrapping open with a knife.

Customs officials said the cans, which were part of a consignment labelled 'soft drinks', arrived at the Al Batha border crossing via truck

A man then takes out what appears to be a can of Pepsi, with a blue wrapper and a red and white logo.

But he quickly realises something is wrong and, with a little difficulty, cuts off the wrapper to reveal a can of Heineken.

The 30-second clip ends with a shot of the beers stacked on top of each other with their fake wrapping removed.

Photographs of the investigation were posted on a Twitter feed for the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia's customs on Wednesday.

The familiar blue, red and white Pepsi wrapping peeled away to reveal cans of Heineken underneath

Photographs of the investigation - including this shot of the 48,000 cans, were posted on a Twitter feed for the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia's customs on Wednesday

The Director General of Customs, speaking after the incident, stressed that smugglers were always trying out creative ways to get alcohol in and out of the country.

Abdulrahman Al-Mahna told the Saudi Gazette: 'A truck carrying what first seemed to be normal cans of the soft drink Pepsi was stopped.

'After the standard process of searching the products, it became clear that the alcoholic beers were covered with Pepsi's sticker logos.'