Late in the afternoon of Jan. 16, a SWAT team from the Fulton County
Sheriff's Office, backed up by officers from the Clayton County
Sheriff's Office and the local police department, along with a few
drug-sniffing dogs, burst into a unmarked recording studio on a short,
quiet street in an industrial neighborhood near the Georgia Dome in
Atlanta. The officers entered with their guns drawn; the local police
chief said later that they were "prepared for the worst." They had come
to serve a warrant for the arrest of the studio's owners on the grounds
that they had violated the state's Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt
Organizations law, or RICO, a charge often used to lock up people who
make a business of selling drugs or breaking people's arms to extort
money. The officers confiscated recording equipment, cars, computers
and bank statements along with more than 25,000 music CDs. Two of the
three owners of the studio, Tyree Simmons, who is 28, and Donald
Cannon, who is 27, were arrested and held overnight in the Fulton
County jail. Eight employees, mostly interns from local colleges, were
briefly detained as well. Later that night, a reporter for
the local Fox TV station, Stacey Elgin, delivered a report on the raid
from the darkened street in front of the studio. She announced that the
owners of the studio, known professionally as DJ Drama and DJ Don
Cannon, were arrested for making "illegal CDs." The report cut to an
interview with Matthew Kilgo, an official with the Recording Industry Association of America,
who was involved in the raid. The R.I.A.A., a trade and lobbying group
that represents the major American record labels, works closely with
the Department of Justice and local police departments to crack down on
illegal downloading and music piracy, which most record-company
executives see as a dire threat to their business. Kilgo works
in the R.I.A.A.'s Atlanta office, and in the weeks before the raid, the
local police chief said, R.I.A.A. investigators helped the police
collect evidence and conduct surveillance at the studio. Kilgo
consulted with the R.I.A.A.'s national headquarters in advance of the
raid, and after the raid, a team of men wearing R.I.A.A. jackets was
responsible for boxing the CDs and carting them to a warehouse for
examination.
5:02:09 PM 
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