Police in Argentina have raided the homes and offices of several individuals linked to a massive streaming piracy operation that rebroadcast La Liga soccer games without authorization.
The coordinated action involved five simultaneous raids and multiple arrest warrants executed throughout several Argentinian provinces, including Chubut, Mendoza, and Río Negro. Argentina’s Federal Police and regional law enforcement units carried out the enforcement with support from digital platforms Mercado Libre and Mercado Pago.
One of the targeted organizations was UV Mundo Digital, an Internet service provider that police accuse of marketing and selling devices that connected to Magis TV, an illegal streaming service. Among other things, police collected a trove of evidence that ranged from IP address logs to bank records and e-mails, according to Argentinian law enforcement authorities.
Javier Tebas, the President of La Liga, praised the collaboration between the league, law enforcement and the anti-piracy organization ALIANZA. He accused some Internet providers of attempting to evade responsibility for facilitating piracy on their networks, saying they ignored judicial warrants and tried to cover up their fraudulent actions.
“This type of operation demonstrates that CABASE is influenced by some ISPs that violate legal standards related to audiovisual fraud and others that refuse to comply with judicial orders,” Tebas said, referring to the local telecom chamber. “We are very satisfied with the collaboration of ALIANZA and La Liga, as well as with entities like Mercado Libre, which have supported the investigation. We firmly believe that collaboration is key to eradicating audiovisual fraud.”
The crackdown is part of a long-running global initiative led by ALIANZA and La Liga aimed at curbing video piracy in Latin America. Their efforts continue, with the league and the organization backing legal orders that require Google to remove Magis TV and another app called Flujo TV from the Google Play Store. As of this week, Google has still not acted on those orders, the groups say.
Officials at La Liga said piracy was not just a threat to their business, but also threatened the cybersecurity of online users. They said platforms like Magis TV and Flujo TV are often linked to data theft and malware attacks. A study released earlier this week by the Alliance for Creativity and Entertainment (ACE), an anti-piracy group backed by Hollywood organizations, alleged the same.
