Raids Target Video Pirates : Copyright: Police hit 8 Little Saigon video stores, confiscating about 200,000 tapes they say were illegally produced. No arrests have been made in the first large-scale crackdown in the area.

Police confiscated about 200,000 illegally copied movie videotapes, mainly Chinese martial arts and pornography films dubbed in Vietnamese, in a series of raids Tuesday at eight Little Saigon video stores, authorities said.

Dozens of Westminster police officers and detectives fanned out to serve search warrants to operators of unlicensed videotape duplication centers, one with as many as 500 VCRs running when police arrived, Lt. Bill Lewis said.

The so-called “pirated” videotapes were estimated to be worth hundreds of thousands of dollars, police said.

Lewis said the copying operations were located in the rear of video stores, where hundreds of copies were made from one original movie. The illegal copies were leased or sold in Little Saigon and throughout Southern California, he said.

Authorities believe some of the tapes, which sold for as much as $33, may have been sent elsewhere in the United States and other countries, including Vietnam.

No arrests were made Tuesday because “it takes time to find out who is controlling the operations,” Lewis said. The confiscated videotapes will be stored as evidence, and police said the owners of the illegal operations may face copyright infringement charges.

Tuesday’s raid was the first such large-scale crackdown in Little Saigon, where the problem has mushroomed over the past few years, police said.

“This is costing legitimate businesses a lot of money,” said Hoa Phu Truong, attorney for Vietnam International Video Dubbing and Distributing Inc., a video distributor that prompted the probe.

Truong said the amount of money lost in the alleged pirating operation in Little Saigon is much greater than what was lost in a similar counterfeiting operation in Los Angeles County last year. He said distributors there were awarded $1.4 million in a settlement.

He said the number of tapes seized in Los Angeles “pales in comparison” to the number confiscated in Little Saigon.

Vietnam International officials went to the police about three weeks ago after discovering illegally copied videotapes with the company’s label.

During Tuesday’s raid, police said, they found about 500 VCRs stacked on long wooden shelves taping several movies. Police confiscated the video recorders from the store, May Ngan in the 10100 block of Bolsa Avenue.

Police did not take the store’s employees into custody, but said the investigation is continuing.

At another store, Ngoc Video, in the 8500 block of Westminster Avenue, posters of Hong Kong movie stars cluttered the front window and door. In the back, police said they discovered 73 VCRs duplicating Vietnamese-language films.

“It’s harder to find a legitimate tape than a bogus one,” said Detective Robert Fowks, who estimated that the store had pirated about 20,000 tapes. No arrests were made.

U.S.-made movies were available to customers, but they did not appear to have been illegally copied, Fowks said.

Other video stores raided Tuesday include Global Video and Danh’s Video, both in the 10400 block of Bolsa Avenue, Thanh Thao Video in the 10000 block of McFadden Avenue, May Ngan III in the 9500 block of Bolsa Avenue, TNP Video in the 6600 block of Westminster Avenue and an unnamed store in the 10100 block of Bolsa Avenue.

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Times staff writer Tina Nguyen contributed to this report.