TECHNOLOGY - Feb. 22, 1995

Piracy Ring Broken Up in Alhambra: More than $2 million worth of counterfeit Microsoft Corp. software and an underground manufacturing laboratory were seized after a six-month investigation, officials said. Deputies from the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department Organized Crime unit seized more than 20,000 pieces of counterfeit software at an unoccupied house eight miles east of Los Angeles. Deputies also took computers used to make unlicensed copies, shrink-wrapping equipment and a handgun. Sheriff’s Detective Bob Franks said the counterfeiters were members of a Chinese organized crime gang manufacturing MS-DOS and Windows copies. Four suspects have been arrested in connection with the counterfeiting operation. Bail has been set at $1 million each. Two of them, who are Chinese nationals, were captured last week in an undercover sting that elicited information that led to the raid, Franks said.