A Playstation 3 jailbreak raid took place earlier today at a residential property in Parktown, Johannesburg. Jailbreak devices are used to circumvent the security features on PS3 consoles to facilitate the playing of pirated PS3 games.

The raid was conducted by the South African Police Service’s Commercial Crime Unit, Johannesburg after receiving criminal complaints from the South African Federation Against Copyright Theft (SAFACT). The Police were assisted by the SARS Computer Forensics Lab.

Various state of the art computers, circumvention software packages, jailbreak USB devices, PS3 consoles and hard drives were seized. In addition fake PS2 games, original PS3 games, believed to be used as masters and documentation were seized.

One suspect has been arrested and he will remain in custody until the court appearance for bail in the Specialized Commercial Crimes Court in the next couple of days.

According to the official distributor of PS3 hardware in South Africa, Ster Kinekor, it is the first PS3 circumvention arrest in the world.

Discuss local jailbreaker arrest in the forums