ONE of the largest counterfeit music and video rings found in the UK has been smashed after police raids in the North-East.

Bootleg CDs and DVDs with a high street value of more than £250,000 were recovered in three raids in Stanley, County Durham, yesterday.

Detectives, working with trading standards officials and anti-piracy specialists, also recovered £10,000 and thousands of blank CDs.

David Martin, director of the British Phonographic Industry's anti-piracy unit, said: "This is certainly one of the largest operations we have encountered in the UK to date, in terms of its potential manufacturing capability.

"The output of this factory would literally be tens of thousands of discs a week, so in that respect, it has been a very successful operation."

Counterfeit products recovered included CDs and DVDs still not available on general release in the UK, such as Kill Bill Volume 2, which was premiered recently, and British film The Football Factory.

Durham police raided three homes in the South Stanley area in co-ordinated raids at 10am.

A force spokesman said the officers found towers of computer equipment used for copying films and music on to DVD and CD.

The equipment was seized and was last night being examined by forensic experts.

Detective Inspector Dave Wolfe, who heads the county's northern pro-active CID unit, said the raids were the result of a long-running intelligence gathering operation, led by Mr Martin's team.

This involved surveillance at car boot sales in Seaham, in east Durham, Tanfield Lea, near Stanley, and Batley's, near Chester-le-Street.

Three men, believed to be brothers, were arrested on suspicion of conspiring to defraud the music industry and were last night being questioned by officers at Durham City police station.