Customs officers from Special Task Force yesterday (December 7) smashed a pirated disks syndicate believed to be under the control of five members within a family and active in piracy activities in Mong Kok.
In an anti-piracy operation codenamed "Explorer", officers raided 16 spots in Mong Kok, Tai Kok Tsui, Shek Kip Mei and Lai King, including a shop, and several residential units.
A replicating center of pirated optical disks (PODs), 2 storage centres, a retail outlet were raided, leading to the seizure of 50,000 PODs and 11 sets of POD replicating devices, each equipped with an optical disk drive and seven CD writers. The seizure was worth about $1.06 million.
A total of 14 men and 3 women, aged between 19 and 66, were arrested. Of them three men with two-way permits were employed for packing and delivering PODs; while eight local men and a local woman were employed for disk replication or sale.
Customs officers believed that they had arrested core members of the syndicate, including a 58-year-old female mastermind.
A spokesman for Customs and Excise stressed that the Department would continue its effort in clamping down on piracy activities, including rooting out piracy syndicates.
Ends/Thursday, December 8, 2005