Ceres flea market sting yields 5 arrests in illegal sales of music

Five people were arrested for illegally selling copyrighted music at the El Rematito flea market, Ceres police reported Wednesday.

The department’s Investigation Division and representatives of the Recording Industry Association of America conducted an operation after the RIAA identified the flea market as a top location in the area for sales of pirated music.

An undercover police detective bought a micro SD card containing over 500 copyrighted songs, the department said on its Facebook page. More than 40,000 copyrighted songs were found among the five people arrested. The RIAA put the value of just those songs at more than $40,000.

There will be additional operations at the flea market in hope the message gets out that police will not tolerate sales of copyrighted music, said Detective Sgt. Danny Vierra. It takes away income from recording artists, studios and employees at factories where CDs are packaged for sale.

Anyone with information about illegal music sales in Ceres is asked to call Detective Carlos Quiroz at 209-538-5638.

This story was originally published October 26, 2016 at 2:51 PM with the headline "Ceres flea market sting yields 5 arrests in illegal sales of music."