The raid by Bulgaria's Chief Directorate for Combating Organised Crime (CDCOC) on the offices of an Internet service provider (ISP) in the town of Dobrich, in northeastern Bulgaria, targeted the firm for illegally distributing copyrighted material, the country's Ministry of Interior said on February 15 2008.

CDCOC was tipped off by the Bulgarian association of music producers and was overseen by prosecutors, the ministry said in a statement.

The police seized 12 servers, containing 25 terabytes of music, films and software -- the equivalent of 37 000-40 000 compact disks, CDCOC chief for intellectual crime Yavor Kolev said. Other equipment included seven streaming servers, satellite receivers and other equipment the ISP used to illegally broadcast television and radio channels on-line to its 5000 subscribers, without securing the right to do so, however.

The name of the ISP was not made public, but Darik radio claimed it was called Bergon. Prosecutors have already launched an pre-trial procedures against its owners, who face a prison term of two to eight years and a fine of up to 50 000 leva, if found guilty.

Initial reports on the day of the raid, February 13 2008, claimed that CDCOC raided the offices of two ISPs in Dobrich, after they were tipped off by local cable television operators.

It came just a day after the International Intellectual Property Alliance (IIPA) gave Bulgaria a special mention in its latest on-line piracy report, because of "continuing concerns regarding high levels of piracy, lack of leadership and coordination by certain Bulgarian government officials and the need to improve enforcement of existing laws."