TRADING standards officers and police netted pirate DVDs, CDs and computer games with a street value of £40,000 during raids in Blaenau Gwent.

Officers swooped at two addresses in Nantyglo and Bryn-mawr last week and confiscated more than 7,300 counterfeit DVDs, CDs and computer games.

Some of the films, such as Alien Vs Predator, have yet to be released in British cinemas.

Other titles, such as Collateral, and Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow, are currently being screened.

Two men were arrested and bailed pending further investigation by trading standards officers and Gwent police.

The raid comes just three months after hundreds of counterfeit DVDs were seized by trading standards officers and police following a crack-down on a car-boot sale at Festival Park, Ebbw Vale.

Steve Jones, head of trading standards at Blaenau Gwent council, said: "Six arrests have been made in the last few months in Blaenau Gwent of people suspected of involvement in film and music piracy.

"This sends out a clear message that trading standards will not tolerate the production and sale of fakes, which damages local trade and the industry as a whole.

"Customers buying fakes should be aware that the quality of these products is invariably poor, and that by purchasing from illegitimate sellers they are funding the lifestyles of people who are essentially parasites on the economy."

Councillor Hedley McCarthy, executive member for the environment and community safety, said: "This is an excellent result for trading standards and the police and once again demonstrates the hard work going on behind the scenes to curtail the problem of piracy."

Detective Constable Bob Ricketts, of Brynmawr CID, said: "Piracy costs the film and music industry a lot of money and we are making every effort, in conjunction with the local authority, to crack down on the people selling and producing these items. It is an activity that will not be tolerated."