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SALT LAKE CITY -- With over $2.7 billion lost to the economy and tax payers annually through music piracy, the Utah SECURE Strike Force is cracking down and earned themselves a Gold Record for recovering thousands of pirated CDs.

The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) presented the honorary gold record to Attorney General Mark Shurtleff and each member of the SECURE Strike Force for their unprecedented numbers of arrests and seizing of pirated music.

"Usually you have to sell a lot of albums to get a Gold record, but this is a great recognition for recovering thousands of forged CDs," says Shurtleff. "These pirated discs represent lost jobs for businesses and lost taxes for state coffers."

These pirated discs represent lost jobs for businesses and lost taxes for state coffers. –- Mark Shurtleff, Attorney General

Over the past year and a half, the Strike Force has seized more than 50,000 pirated units in Utah worth nearly $700,000. Agents also arrested 14 people from two different counties (Salt Lake and Weber) and seized pirated music from local stores from five different counties.

SECURE also used a search warrant and tracked down "masters" in Los Angeles where several thousand CDs were seized. The masters are used to create music discs and each master represents several hundred thousand potential pirated CDs.

"Those are real results," said RIAA Anti-Piracy Executive Vice-President Brad Buckles. "On behalf of the major U.S. music labels, we are pleased to present Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff and members of the SECURE Strike Force with honorary Gold Records as a token of our appreciation for all the hard work they've done to meaningfully address piracy on the streets of Utah."

In an effort to boost the state economy, the SECURE Strike Force was launched in June 2009 to stop major crimes of music piracy, and the illegal aliens involved. Suspects have been undocumented residents charged with forgery, racketeering and piracy, but agents have also seized drugs, fake government documentation, and several thousand pirated movies.

"We have and will continue to support ongoing investigations into organized crime and piracy in Utah and other states," said Ken Wallentine, A.G. Director of Law Enforcement.

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