By Plínio Delphino, Diário de São Paulo - 17/12/2004

Sixty delegates and 350 civil police officers from 39 municipalities yesterday made the biggest apprehension of pirated products in the history of the Macro São Paulo Judicial Police Department (Demacro). About 20 tons of illegal materials were collected. At least nine people were caught in the act during the operation, which started at 10 am and lasted last night. Hundreds of suspects were investigated and even marijuana bricks were seized in street vendor stalls in São Bernardo do Campo, ABC.

According to the director of Demacro, Nelson Silveira Guimarães, the operation was launched in the region covered by nine sectional police stations.
"Simultaneous approaches yield much more results than individual ones," he noted. The delegate stressed:? We are not fighting street vendors. Are we fighting piracy ?. In addition to street vendors' tents, the police surveyed stores and also malls.

According to Guimarães, in Diadema, with the presence of the police, some stores closed their doors.
"They said it was due to a lack of energy," said the policeman. As of 20 pm yesterday, the police had seized about 30 CDs and DVDs, 1.500 cigarette packs, various clothing, perfumes, watches, caps, sunglasses, among other items. The flagrant arrests took place in Santo André, ABC. ? The accused will respond to an investigation into the crime of copyright ,? said Guimarães.

Demacro is expected to close the balance sheet for all cities involved in the operation today. According to the director of De-macro, there are likely to be two other operations of this magnitude in 2004.
? We commit a lot of people to this work, but the very satisfactory result is a sign that it needs to be repeated ?, explained Guimarães. According to him, all the clerks are working on the seizures.