BUENA PARK : Recordings Raid in ’90 Was Year’s Biggest

A raid last October at a rock music swap meet in Buena Park produced the year’s single largest seizure of illegal recordings in the nation, a recording industry trade group reports.

The Oct. 25 raid at the Sequoia Athletic Club uncovered more than 5,000 bootlegged tapes, records and other goods, with an estimated value of more than $100,000, according to Steven D’Onofrio, anti-piracy director of the Recording Industry Assn. of America.

“The funny thing was there was a sign out front that said, ‘No bootlegging,’ ” said D’Onofrio, who accompanied Buena Park police on the raid and helped them identify pirated recordings.

Thirteen vendors were arrested on suspicion of selling the illegal merchandise, which ranged from videos of recent Paul McCartney concerts to 20-year-old recordings of Beatles performances.

D’Onofrio said bootleggers try to deceive consumers into believing that illegal recordings are originals.

“It appears to be legitimate (and) you may think you are getting a deal, but the quality is very poor,” D’Onofrio said.

Buena Park police had been investigating the monthly swap meet, held in a banquet room at the club, for more than six months before the raid. The show, the largest of its type on the West Coast, attracts 150 vendors and several thousand customers on the fourth Sunday of each month.

According to a recording industry report, the Buena Park raid added to the record 1.1-million counterfeit cassettes seized nationwide last year by law enforcement officials, up more than 100,000 from 1989.

Nearly 50% of all arrests for suspected violations of state and federal audio piracy laws occur on the West Coast, and two-thirds of all illegal recording facilities raided in 1990 were located in California, the report states.