CUSTOMS and Excise officers claimed yesterday they had smashed a multi-million dollar pirate Nintendo games syndicate after almost 3,000 fake game cartridges and 700 fake TV game machines were seized.
Twenty seven boxes of game cartridges containing 2,763 TV games cartridges, and bearing forged trademarks of Nintendo, were discovered during a routine search of a lorry at the Man Kam To border crossing on Friday.
In a series of follow-up operations, customs officers raided a Hunghom factory and two homes in Tsuen Wan and Hunghom, seizing a further 700 fake TV game machines, 56 game cartridges, and a large quantity of paper boxes and plastic casings for the goods.
The retail price for the fakes was $2.046 million and officers said they were destined for re-export to Central and South America.
Three people were arrested - a Hongkong man named Wu, 24, a Taiwanese man called Wang, 33, and his wife Cheung, 31, who are all likely to be charged with infringing copyright and trademark regulations.
They were released on bail ranging from $3,000 to $200,000.