Malaysian authorities have seized pirated DVDs worth RM5 million (US$1.3 million), including copies of the latest Star Wars movie Revenge of the Sith , local media said Saturday.

After three days of surveillance, police raided a warehouse in the capital on Friday and seized some 500,000 pirated DVDs, said Mohamad Roslan Mahayudin, a senior official at the Domestic Trade and Consumer Affairs Ministry.

However, no arrests were made because no one was in the warehouse at the time of the raid. The DVDs were probably destined for the United States and Europe, he added.

Indepth probe

"Initial investigations reveal that the warehouse is linked to several optical disc factories around the Klang Valley and we will carry out an indepth investigation on the factories," he was quoted as saying by the Bernama news agency.

Like many Asian countries, Malaysia is awash with pirated discs, where the latest releases are sold even before their Hollywood premieres, sometimes for as little as one US dollar.