O.C. Ring Target of Raid That Nets Pirated Software

In their second raid in a week, Westminster police and the FBI on Tuesday confiscated a warehouse full of allegedly pirated Microsoft software in Long Beach, in what they believe is a $60-million counterfeit ring run by Asian gangs in Orange County.

Nearly 10,000 CD-ROMs, mostly copies of Microsoft’s operating system Windows 98, were found crammed inside a brick storage garage at 6655 Atlantic Ave. Police estimated that the goods were worth at least $2 million. No one was arrested.

The raid was similar to a search last Wednesday, when investigators from the two agencies went through five warehouses--two in Long Beach, three in Paramount--in search of pirated software.

Estimates from that raid, initially believed to be about $30 million, now appear to twice as much, authorities said. Police would not identify the name of the gang they believe to be involved.

Among the other items seized Tuesday were stacks of fake Microsoft authorization certificates and user manuals; printing plates used to print the manuals; and at least four “master” software disks, each of which could be used to reproduce as many as 40,000 CDs a year.

The master disks take an “extremely sophisticated machine” to manufacture, and have writing on them which appear to indicate they came from Asia, Westminster Police Sgt. Marcus Frank said.

Seizure of the master disks has seriously damaged the gang’s ability to continue its operations, Frank said.

Amid pouring rain, officers hauled out boxes filled with thousands of disks sporting the Microsoft logo. The goods, which filled a large U-Haul truck, were taken to the Westminster police station.

Investigators were led to the Long Beach storage unit from a business card with the name Atlantic Self Storage, which they found in the Paramount raid.

Last week, federal prosecutors charged three individuals--Hemant Navnit Bham, Victor Manual Duran and Jorge Higinio Calderon--with trafficking $30 million in counterfeit Microsoft products. The suit was filed in U.S. Central District Court in Los Angeles.

Officials with the U.S. attorney’s office declined to comment Tuesday.

Tuesday’s crackdown marks the latest in a series of high-profile software counterfeit cases in Orange County. In July, a San Clemente man was arrested by Anaheim police after undercover detectives bought more than $97,000 worth of pirated Microsoft software.

And in an ongoing investigation that dates to 1997, police continue to unravel a worldwide multimillion-dollar software piracy ring run out of Little Saigon. The probe, lead by Westminster police, has turned up at least $3 million in counterfeit software and federal indictments against 14 people.

Despite international efforts to curb high-tech theft, sales of pirated software continue to plague the computer industry, which has lost billions of dollars in revenue, according to industry trade group Business Software Alliance.

Times correspondents Jack Leonard and Harrison Sheppard contributed to this report.