HONG KONG -- Customs officials from Hong Kong and China seized over 64,000 pirated discs and smashed the largest DVD burning laboratory of the year in Hong Kong, a film industry group said Thursday.

The territory-wide raids on seven DVD shops, seven street hawkers and a laboratory with 97 DVD-R burners last week turned up pirated versions of Chinese, American and Japanese movies and TV shows, Motion Picture Association said in a press release.

The total retail value of the seized DVDs was about HK$2 million (US$258,030; £á180,891), it said.

The lab, operating at full capacity for a year, had the potential to produce over 5 million pirated discs with a potential revenue of about HK$104 million (US$13 million; £á9.14 million), it said.

Officials also busted shops that sold pirated movies disguised as legitimate products which were charged about HK$50 (US$6.5; £á4.5) more than a pirated version.

"These crooks were not only cheating the owners of the pirated movies, but were also cheating consumers into spending their hard-earned cash on what they thought were legitimate movies," said Sam Ho, executive director and general manager of the International Federation Against Copyright Theft -- Greater China.

Rampant piracy has long been a source of tension between China and nations such as the U.S. that have big film and music industries. China has said it is cracking down on fakes, but other countries have alleged Chinese officials aren't doing enough.