Earlier this week the Justice Department won indictments from a federal grand jury in the Eastern District of Virginia on four individuals charged with conducting a massive piracy operation involving CD manufacturing plants, radio station employees and music stores.

Those indicted – Adil R. Casim of Granada Hills, Calif., Bennie Glover of Shelby, N.C., Matthew D. Chow of Missouri City, Texas., and Edward L. Mohan II of Baltimore – belonged to a group that operated under the name “Rapid Neurosis” or “RNS” from 1999 to 2007.

According to the indictment, RNS was a “first provider,” meaning its members had access to vast amounts of music that they would then prepare for illicit online distribution. The Justice Department maintains that membership to RNS was limited to people who could make unavailable music available.

How did they obtain the music in the first place? This is where it gets interesting. Although RNS members allegedly bought some CDs as soon as they were released, ripped the tracks and distributed the songs to other RNS members, a lot of music came from CD manufacturing plants. That is, when RNS members weren’t getting their pirate booty from unreleased albums distributed to radio stations and retailers in the form of advance copies.

How much trouble are the defendants in? Let’s put it this way: be glad you’re not one of them.

If convicted, the defendants face a maximum sentence of five years in prison, a $250,000 fine and three years of supervised release. Plus, they could also be ordered to provide restitution, i.e., pay fines to the copyright holders, meaning record labels, songwriters and publishers.

The Justice Department says the RNS case is part of a multi-year federal investigation of organized piracy groups illicitly distributing, not just music, but also movies, video games and software.