Huge Cache of Counterfeit Cassettes, 6 Suspects Seized : Tape piracy: Case could be largest ever in California. Deputies also confiscate $89,000 in cash.

Six Mexican citizens have been arrested in the largest seizure of counterfeit cassette recordings ever made in California, the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department said Saturday.

The bootleg tapes and recording equipment--estimated to have cost the recording industry $45 million annually in lost sales--were discovered at two Pico Rivera residences after deputies investigated a 911 emergency call.

Deputy Pat Hunter said the anonymous caller had hung up, but patrol cars were dispatched to the address. When deputies arrived, they found thousands of finished counterfeit cassette tapes and enough blank tapes to make thousands more, Hunter said.

Recording equipment found at the house was believed to be capable of producing 15,000 to 20,000 cassettes a day, Hunter said. The tapes would have netted a profit of about $300,000 a week, he said.

An official from the Recording Industry Assn. of America arrived at the house and described the counterfeit operation as the biggest ever uncovered in the state.

“We do not know if (the tapes are) Latin music, American music, rock ‘n’ roll music, or what,” Hunter said. “It’s just a variety of music.”

In the garage of the first home, deputies found another 50,000 finished cassette tapes. Information at that house led deputies to another home in the area where they found $89,000 in cash and documents that indicated counterfeiting activity, Hunter said. The money, in $100 bills, was stashed in a cookie jar and hidden in the attic, the deputy said.

Arrested were Ruben Perez, 18; Trino Becerra, 22; Fidel Becerra, 23; Ramon Gutierez, 18; Pastor Sandoval, 22; and Aurelio Moreno, 46. They were booked on suspicion of tape piracy and were being held at the Los Angeles County sheriff’s substation in Pico Rivera. Bail was set at $5,000 each.