Busted: Streaming and IPTV services have largely overtaken torrents and direct downloads as the most popular technologies for online piracy. European law enforcement agencies just dismantled a large operation dealing in unlawful streaming, arresting several operators and seizing thousands of IPTV channels.
The Italian State Police just announced the dismantling of a pirate streaming service with over 22 million global users. Officials claim it was a business unlawfully making €250 million ($264 million US) monthly. The law enforcement agency worked with Europol, Eurojust, and other international authorities to investigate the alleged administrators of illegal operations in Europe and other countries.
"Operation Taken Down" is the most extensive law enforcement action against audiovisual piracy ever led, according to the Italian State Police. More than 270 Italian police officers and international colleagues conducted searches in several Italian regions, the UK, Netherlands, Romania, Croatia, and China, targeting 102 different suspects.
Officials discovered over 2,500 illegal channels, with nine servers in Romania and Hong Kong as the central relays for the pirate streams. Three "higher-level" administrators were tracked down in England and the Netherlands, while officers discovered 80 control panels for managing the streaming channels across Italy.
The cyber-criminals were selling popular live and on-demand TV content coming from well-established platforms such as Sky, Dazn, Mediaset, Amazon Prime, Netflix, Paramount, Disney+, and more. Officials took the unlawful IPTV business offline yesterday after a two-year investigation provided a clear picture of the complex network and identified its alleged perpetrators. The Croatian police arrested 11 people, though the masterminds of the entire operation were mostly based in Italy and other European countries.
Operation Taken Down was primarily led by the Italian Postal Police as ordered by the Catania Prosecutor's Office. The criminals had a widespread organization to resell the pirated IPTV channels, with different people covering specific roles in a highly organized mafia-like operation.
The Italian police confiscated €1.6 million in cryptocurrencies and €40,000 in cash--just a drop in the bucket for an illegal business estimated to bring around €3 billion annually. The criminal organization also used different methods to hide its activity, including encrypted messaging applications. The criminals used false identities and ID documents to register mobile accounts, obtain credit cards, rent servers, and sign up for TV subscriptions.