Pirate cable operation cracked by Metro, FBI

Jace Radke

Thursday, March 2, 2000 | 11:30 a.m.

Metro Police and the FBI on Wednesday raided what they called a major manufacturing and distribution center for illegal cable television converters.

Authorities served a search warrant at H&S Tech, 2350 E. Patrick Lane, east of McCarran International Airport, on Feb. 21 and found 4,300 cable boxes.

Bob Kaijowski, senior manager of business operations for Cox Communications, said the raid revealed more evidence that stealing cable signals is a major problem nationwide.

"It's very common across the country, and probably costs major cable providers about $5.1 billion a year in revenue," Kaijowski said. "This bust was one of the biggest I've seen in my 23 years in this business."

Police found thousands of circuit boards and computer chips used in the construction of the boxes in the H&S Tech warehouse, Metro Lt. Larry Spinosa said.

The serial numbers on the merchandise had been sanded off, and empty metal shells used to house the boards and chips were also found, Spinosa said.

Four Korean nationals at the warehouse were taken into custody and were turned over to the FBI.

"It looks like the investigation will involve a bunch of different states and possibly countries, so it falls in the FBI's jurisdiction," Spinosa said.

The four Koreans -- Hyong Kim, 37, Sok Chin, 19, Han Rim Lee, 34, and Young Hee Lee-Ko, 30 -- could face federal charges, FBI spokesman Joseph Dickey said.

"It's an ongoing investigation, but you could see charges relating to theft of services that is mentioned in the Communications Policy Act of 1984," Kaijowski said.

This was the fourth recent bust by authorities of alleged illegal cable box distributors or manufacturers, and Spinosa estimates that between 6,000 and 7,000 illegal boxes have been seized in the raids.

The last raid was on Feb. 4 in Henderson when Metro detectives found a stash of more than 1,000 cable television boxes.

The combined raids have resulted in the largest operation in the United States to combat cable pirates, Kaijowski said.

Jace Radke is a reporter for the Las Vegas Sun. He can be reached at (702) 259-2318 or by e-mail at jace@lasvegassun.com