We are accustomed to advances against pirate IPTV taking place little by little, knocking down some of its operators after months of investigation, but in today’s case, thanks to the association of different countries in Europol, a mega-operation has ended with the closure of 12,526 web pages with pirated content.
Europol is pleased with the result of an operation that has involved the police forces of Spain, Italy, Portugal, France… and thus up to a total of 27 countries.
The data of the “Operation In Our Sites”
Operation In Our Sites is an operation coordinated by Europol to remove websites that offer counterfeit products or are involved in online piracy. As of Cyber Monday this year, law enforcement agencies had taken down 12,526 websites, taken offline 32 servers used to distribute and host illegal content for 2,294 illegal TV channels, and shut down 15 online stores selling counterfeit goods on sites social networks.
In the physical field, the investigators seized 127,365 counterfeit products such as clothing, watches, shoes, accessories, perfumes, electronic products and phone covers worth more than 3.8 million euros.
Returning to pirate IPTV, it is considered one of the big problems within the borders of our continent: «The main problems continue to be the infringement of intellectual property of registered trademarks, as well as the content protected by copyright available on television over Internet Protocol (IPTV) and movie streaming services, P2P sharing platforms and hosting websites.
Four arrested in Spain for pirate IPTV
Among the results of this mega-operation, one that occurred within our national borders is specifically cited. The Spanish Police arrested four people and one of them was formally charged.
According to the preliminary results of the investigation, the main suspect in this investigation earned up to 150,000 euros per month and led a luxurious lifestyle in a luxurious house, drove expensive cars and went on extravagant vacations all over the world.
The criminal network was engaged in the large-scale marketing and distribution of audiovisual content through pirated IPTV. As part of the operation, the Spanish police disconnected 32 servers that hosted illegal content and seized cash, documents and two luxury vehicles.
These data, together with the shared photographs, could coincide with those of another operation that we recently told you about and in which even the Alliance for Creativity and Entertainment congratulated our National Police. In this, there was the closure of the pirate IPTV called TV Choice Spain, which provided service to more than 500,000 people throughout Europe. This operation, coordinated with Europol and ACE itself, was carried out on October 19.
During the intervention, homes of those responsible in Marbella (Málaga) were searched, four people were also arrested, bank accounts with more than 3 million euros were frozen, bank accounts abroad were detected and computer equipment was seized, data of more than 95 resellers located in Spain, the United Kingdom, Malta, Portugal, Cyprus and Greece and Tesla and Range Rover vehicles valued at 180,000 euros (exactly those in the photograph).
