The Ministry of Public Security (MPS) announced at the end of last week that two US nationals were arrested on July 1 as leading suspects in a pirated DVD trafficking ring, the result of a joint operation by Chinese and US law enforcement departments, and the first DVD piracy case cracked via the Internet.

"This is the first-ever co-operative joint investigation between the two countries' police forces on DVD piracy," said Gao Feng, deputy director of the Economic Crime Investigation Department (ECID) of the ministry, at a press conference.

On July 1, Shanghai police, led by ECID, launched the operation "Spring Action,"–subsequently, the two US nationals were arrested with the help of the Bureau of Immigration & Customs Enforcement (ICE) of the US Department of Homeland Security. A total of 6 suspects involved in manufacturing and sales of pirated DVDs in Shanghai, including US citizens Rudolph Hobson Gutherie and Cody Abram Thrush, were arrested.

Shanghai police demolished three warehouses where more than 210,000 copies of pirated DVDs were stocked.