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They seized computer equipment and paperwork after receiving details of the operation from an investigation by the IFPI, a global recording industry body and the BPI, the UK industry body. A 25 year-old male was arrested.

The IFPI and BPI allege that the system was being used by the unauthorised Russian music download website allofmp3.com to try and sidestep credit card companies' decisions to block payments to the site. They claim that the arrested man was the UK-based European agent for allofmp3.com, facilitating the sale of digital downloads by advertising and selling vouchers through auction sites. These include eBay and the website allofmp3vouchers.co.uk, which has now been removed from the Web.

The £10 vouchers contained a code that allowed UK and European consumers to access and download music from the allofmp3.com website.

Allofmp3 has long been targeted by the music industry for selling cut-price downloads without authorisation by either the artists or other rightsholders. The site's owners claim that it pays record companies and artists, but there is no evidence of this.

The major credit card companies including

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MasterCard and Visa, as well as online payment services such as PayPal, have all withdrawn their payment facilities from Allofmp3.com because, they said, of copyright infringement. Net ratings firm Alexa reports that its popularity has since fallen; when once it was one of the top destinations on the Web it is now outside the top 2,000.

The site also faces intense pressure from both the Russian and US governments, as well as legal action in German and Italy that may force ISPs to block access, as they already must do in Denmark.

BPI chief executive Geoff Taylor praised the Met and warned music fans to be on their guard: 'British music fans should beware of voucher schemes like this one that seek to prop up an illegal service that rips off artists,' he said. 'This criminal investigation demonstrates that trying to profit from the illegal distribution of music online is an offence with serious consequences.'

He added: 'The Metropolitan Police deserve a great deal of credit for their work on this case.'

IFPI chairman and chief executive John Kennedy, reiterated the industry's insistence that allofmp3.com is illegal in both Russia and the rest of the world.

'The action announced today is the latest to highlight allofmp3.com's long and undistinguished history of stealing music from artists, composers and record producers and selling it at a profit,' he said.