Mumbai: Ten officers from the Ministry of Domestic Trade and Consumer Affairs (MDTCA), with the support from Malaysian Federation Against Copyright Theft (MFACT), representing the Motion Picture Association (MPA) in Malaysia, raided a clandestine factory in an industrial area of Selangor On 31 August.

The factory was surrounded by four-meter-high metal fencing which the raiding party had to climb over before breaking open the back door to gain entry.  On entry, two of the four men who were operating the machines at the time of raid attempted to escape by climbing over the metal fence. Both of them fell and broke a leg each. They have since received outpatient treatment for their injuries.

All four men were arrested and are currently in remand for further investigations.

MDTCA officers seized US$1.2 million worth of machinery, including four replicating machines, two bonding machines, one printing machine, two metalizing machines and 12 stampers.  It is estimated that the factory had a production capacity of more than 14 million pirated discs a year.

Among the seizures were movie and games titles including "Enchanted", local movie "Duyung", "WWE Night of Champion 2008" and "NBA Live 08".

"Illegal factories remain a serious threat in Malaysia and we will continue to focus our resources on driving them out of Malaysia," said Mike Ellis, President and Managing Director, Asia-Pacific for the Motion Picture Association. "We congratulate MDTCA for conducting another successful operation and are confident that they will maintain the heat on the pirates, as they and our K-9 colleague Paddy have done last week."