Police Arrest 12 Tied to Counterfeit Tape Ring

Los Angeles police, capping a two-month investigation of a San Fernando Valley counterfeit audiotape ring, arrested 12 people Thursday morning and seized more than $500,000 in recording equipment and cash at seven locations in the northeastern Valley.

The nine men and three women, all in their 20s, were being held on suspicion of failure to disclose the origin of a sound recording, a felony, said Sgt. Rick Di Stefano, head of the Foothill Division vice unit.

They were arrested after police, assisted by investigators from the Recording Industry Assn. of America, served search warrants at seven residences, businesses and storage facilities, Di Stefano said.

Police seized $30,000 in cash, three high-speed tape duplicating machines and 150,000 blank and duplicated cassettes, he said. They also seized 6.5 million counterfeit insert cards, which list music recorded on the cassettes, he said.

The suspects are believed to have sold cassettes of fraudulently copied music on street corners and at shopping centers and swap meets in the Los Angeles area, Di Stefano said. Most of the tapes were of Mexican popular music, he said.