Shadowy foreigners...cargo containers slipped past U.S. Customs...hidden warehouses...undercover federal agents.

A secret terrorist investigation? Nah...counterfeit video game bust.

According to a Nintendo press release, the FBI nabbed "four Chinese nationals" in the Big Apple on game piracy charges. Approximately 40 FBI agents seized over 60,000 pirated products during five raids staged earlier this week. The contraband was described as Power Player units. The Nintendo press release claimed that the devices contained pirated versions of games like Donkey Kong, Mario Bros., and Duck Hunt. GamePolitics is awaiting clarification from Nintendo, but it is believed that these devices connect directly to a TV set and contain chipped versions of older games.

Sounds like a real cloak-and-dagger caper. Between September and December 2004, the defendants imported 27 cargo containers holding more than 280,000 counterfeit video game systems. After several meetings, the defendants revealed to the undercover FBI agents the locations of their warehouses and provided information about their distribution network. On April 13, the undercover agents, posing as toy distributors, arrested the four defendants and confiscated illegal products, computers and business records. The FBI conducted accompanying searches in Queens, N.Y.; Brooklyn, N.Y.; and Maple Shade, N.J., near Philadelphia.

Nintendo, which has always protected its IP aggressively, claims that during the first quarter of 2005, more than 80 seizures of counterfeit Nintendo products were conducted, resulting in the confiscation of close to 180,000 products globally. The video game giant estimates that piracy cost the company more than $860 million in lost sales in 2004 alone.