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Customs officers from Special Task Force have smashed a syndicate, which is believed to have exported pirated DVDs of a Japanese cartoon to the United States, and sold them in Hong Kong.

They seized about 240,000 pirated DVDs worth about $6 million.

About 4pm yesterday (January 25), Customs officers raided a pirated DVDs packaging and storage centre in a Kwun Tong commercial unit, resulting in the seizure of about 230,000 pirated Japanese cartoon DVDs worth about $5.75 million. Two men and two women, aged between 28 and 43, were also arrested.

In follow-up investigation, Customs officers seized about 10,000 pirated Japanese cartoon DVDs worth about $250,000 from a consignment due for export to the United States during a search in a logistics company in Shatin today (January 26).

Customs officers believed that they had arrested the core members of a syndicate.

Under the Copyright Ordinance, anyone who is found in possession of any infringing article for commercial purpose is liable to prosecution. The maximum penalty for the offence is a fine of $50,000 per infringing article and four years' imprisonment.

Ends/Wednesday, January 26, 2005

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