Law enforcement officials in five European countries arrested 11 people and dismantled one of the largest pirate television operations in the world, the region’s leading anti-piracy group said this week.
The operation involved federal police in the United Kingdom, Italy, Switzerland, Sweden and Croatia, who executed 103 property searches in those countries and France, Germany, Bulgaria, Sweden and several others, the Audiovisual Anti-Piracy Alliance (AAPA) announced.
Officials did not name the pirate Internet-based television service (IPTV) that was dismantled, or whether the network operated several of them. But they did affirm the discovery of €40,000 (around U.S. $42,000) in cash from one location and the seizure of €1.65 million (around U.S. $1.74 million) in cryptocurrency from servers connected with the scheme.
All told, the pirate IPTV operation netted €3 billion (around U.S. $3.16 billion) in illegal revenue on an annual basis, the group said.
The IPTV operation resembled a legitimate media empire, with an international presence that included sales and administrative offices in Hong Kong and Romania, as well as server hubs and a network of resellers throughout Europe. Three technical administrators were tracked to the United Kingdom and the Netherlands.
More than 100 people are considered suspects, though only 11 were in custody as of Wednesday morning, according to information furnished by The Desk.
“We applaud the efforts of the Catania Public Prosecutor’s Office, the Croatian State Attorney Office for Suppression of Corruption and Organised Crime, Europol, Eurojust, and all the law enforcement agencies involved in these operations,” Mark Mulready, the co-President of the AAPA, said in a statement. “The scale of these multi-jurisdictional law enforcement actions highlights the considerable challenge our industry faces when dealing with such sophisticated international pirate networks. We are proud to have collaborated with our law enforcement partners to provide technical training and in-field support to assist them in successfully tackling the world’s largest pirate network.”
The AAPA said a number of private organizations assisted with the investigation, including Premier League, Comcast’s Sky Group, BeIN Sports, United Media, Friend MTS, Irdeto, Nagravision and the Deutsche Fußball Liga (German Football League).
“We will continue to closely collaborate with law enforcement agencies in Europe and beyond to enable them to successfully identify, investigate and prosecute large-scale cross-border pirate networks,” Mulready warned.
