KUALA LUMPUR: While most people view a hotel room as a place to put up for the night, a gang of VCD and DVD pirates has been using a room in a Jalan Alor hotel as their warehouse and operations base.
However, their activities were brought to an end yesterday when a team from Bukit Aman Commercial Crime Department's Intelligence and Investigation Unit raided the room.
Three people were arrested and more than 30,000 VCDs and DVDs worth some RM350,000 were found inside the sixth floor room.
The raid, which began at 1.20am and lasted until 3am, came after a week-long surveillance.
The gang, which is believed to be part of a larger syndicate, is said to have operated there for between five and 10 years, during which time they raked in millions of ringgit from sales of pirated discs.
Though they sold their wares to any interested party, their main modus operandi was to approach tourists along Jalan Alor and Jalan Bukit Bintang with files containing titles of English and Chinese movies, mostly pornography.
When an order is received, the “salesperson” would go back to the hotel room to retrieve the movie. However, instead of returning directly to the hotel, they would take a circuitous route in order to lose any pursuers.
Of the three people arrested, two were men. The other, a Thai woman, is believed to be the lover of one of the men. All of them are in their 20s.
One of the men, said to be the leader, is believed to be well known to the police and Domestic Trade and Consumer Affairs Ministry, having been arrested on numerous occasions for similar offences.
Source : STAR
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