A Senegalese man was sentenced to five years in prison and ordered Wednesday to pay the Motion Picture Association of America and the Recording Industry Association of America $71,000 in restitution for his role in an Atlanta-based DVD and CD pirating operation that unlawfully sold millions of copies of copyrighted works without authorization from rights holders.

Mamadou Aliou Simakha had pleaded guilty in 2010 to one count of conspiracy to commit copyright infringement but then fled the country. He was arrested last year in Morocco and extradited to the US in December, the authorities said. The FBI investigated the case with a variety of government agencies in addition to the RIAA and MPAA.

"Simakha admitted his part as a high-volume seller in a conspiracy to produce and traffic millions of pirated music CDs and DVDs which was a leading supplier for the southeastern US," John Horn, the US attorney, said in a statement. “His decision to flee the country garnered him the statutory maximum sentence he deserves for his many years as a disc counterfeiter and international fugitive."

Movies that were packaged to look real and sold in retail outlets and flea markets included titles like Kung Fu Panda, Hancock, Gran Torino, Changeling, Righteous Kill, and Dark Knight, according to the indictment. Artists whose music was pirated included Lil Wayne, Kanye West, T.I., and Robin Thicke, Usher, Jennifer Hudson, and others.

According to the authorities, Simakha was one of 13 people involved in the piracy ring. Seven others have been sentenced to terms of up to five years in prison, while the others are either on the loose or have their cases pending.

The conspiracy, according to the indictment, (PDF) included obtaining "imported loads of blank CDs and DVDs by container ship from China for resale in metropolitan Atlanta." Inside area warehouses, the conspiracy included burning the discs and making "unauthorized photocopies of the jackets, labels, artwork, and logos for CDs and DVDs."

In a letter to the judge seeking leniency, the defendant said he had the equivalent of a 6th-grade education. He was making $300 per week selling clothes at a local flea market when he "noticed DVD, CD sales at the Flea Market."

"It seemed a lot better. I realize that this was a mistake," he wrote (PDF).

He said he fled the country after he pleaded guilty because he became depressed and "started drinking." He was arrested in Morocco last year and was detained there for nine months in what he described as "horrendous conditions."

"There were 60-80 people in our unit. One bathroom. People had to sleep on the floor body to body because the unit was small," he told the judge. He added that "Poor food, stress, sickness, and the other factors caused me lose 70 pounds during that 9 months and 16 days period."