Gardai discover large pirate video factory

APRIL 1998

GARDAÍ discover what they believe is the largest pirate video factory in the State.

‘ The scale of the operation indicates it was supplying markets well away from here,’ says a source.

The value of items seized at premises outside Dundalk is put at £500,000.

Included are more than 50 recording and copying machines, thousands of music and video tapes, including chart-toppers and the movie ‘ Titanic’.

There are also photo copiers for producing the cover sleeves of music tapes and videos.

Orders are labelled and ready for dispatch, when gardaí and detectives raid an extensive warehouse at Mountpleasant.

Officers spend eight hours carrying out a detailed inventory and removing the property.

Two men and a woman, from north Louth and south Armagh, are arrested. They are questioned for a time before being released.

A file is being prepared for the Director of Public Prosecutions.

Gardaí say the operation is highly sophisticated and has been running for some time, with the capacity to undermine legitimate business.

Industry sources claim it is the biggest single cache seized in the country, surpassing other large finds in the area, notably one in Dromiskin a few years ago.

This latest discovery results from intelligence-gathering by the guards as part of contin- uing security activities which includes regular searches along the border for explosives, arms and ammunition.

It plays a significant part in breaking a ‘car-ringing’ racket recently and the recovery of major hauls of stolen goods, including property taken in Northern Ireland and stored this side of the border.

Last February gardaí find 320 remote control televisions, stolen in Larne, at a hay shed in Faughart. A stolen Mercedes is also at the scene.