Phuket Police Seize 10,000 Discs In Pirate Family Raid

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Phuket police seize 10,000 discs in pirate family raid

PHUKET: -- Police arrested six members of the same family and confiscated more than 10,000 CDs and DVDs in a pre-dawn raid north of Phuket Town yesterday.

Phuket’s top-brass police led a sortie of 30 officers in the early-morning raid on three adjacent homes on Soi Han Farang in Koh Kaew.

Inside the houses, police caught the family literally in the act of pirating discs.

The officers found thousands of CDs and DVDs along with computers, disc duplicators and other equipment for copying discs.

Police also seized four pickup trucks and two three-wheeled motorcycles that the suspects allegedly used to deliver the pirated goods around the island.

The total value of items seized as evidence is estimated to be at least 10 million baht.

Dang Laolee, 54, from Ubon Ratchathani province, confessed to being the pirates’ ringleader. The rest of the suspects arrested were her relatives, she said in her statement.

Mrs Dang told police she had rented the three houses to use as a pirate disc factory for the past two years.

They could produce more than 1,000 discs a day, she said.

Her relatives peddled the illegal discs at tourist attractions and markets across Phuket, Mrs Dang said.

The products were also sold to vendors in Phuket, Krabi and Phang Nga.

The six arrested have been charged with producing and selling copyright products without permission.

All six confessed to the charges against them.

-- Phuket Gazette 2010-12-02

[ScubaBuddha]

And after a 300B fine each were released.

[gotlost]

And after a 300B fine each were released.

That much??

[def2708]

sorry ,misunderstanding,the fine has been paid to the police officer that let them go

[DougLee]

My guess is they provided child porn to the officer, free of charge, to get back home.

Thats how it works in pattaya, police make a lot of $ selling child porn

[BillR]

usually they confiscate the goods, sort through it for the good stuff, and sell the rest of it back to the owner.