€3bn Pirate IPTV Network Serving 22m Users “Dismantled” in Massive Operation

A two-year pirate IPTV investigation directed by the Catania District Attorney's Office in Italy, involving Europol, Eurojust, and law enforcement agencies across Europe, culminated in the early hours of this morning. Operation Takendown reportedly dismantled an international pirate IPTV network serving 22 million users and generating an estimated €3 billion per year. At least 11 suspects were detained, over 100 are under investigation.

Law enforcement operations targeting pirate sites and services are often enthusiastically described as ‘large-scale’ or ‘major’.

If reports emerging from authorities in Italy hold true, describing the international operation that culminated early this morning as massive, wouldn’t be an exaggeration.

Operation Takendown is said to have targeted what may be the largest pirate IPTV network serving Europe, authorities say, and the numbers involved are some of the largest ever seen.

The District Attorney’s Office of Catania, a Sicilian city with strong links to organized crime, claims that the network served 22 million subscribers and generated an estimated €3 billion per year, causing €10 billion in damages to subscription TV broadcasters.

Operation Takendown: International Cooperation

The operation was carried out through a collaboration between law enforcement agencies, including Europol and Eurojust, and the Audiovisual Anti-Piracy Alliance (AAPA).

A total of 14 searches were executed in the UK, Netherlands, Sweden, Switzerland, Romania, and Croatia. Servers and IPTV panels were traced to the UK and the Netherlands during searches that reportedly took place on Tuesday. In Croatia, police executed precautionary custody orders against 11 suspects.

Across all of these countries, 102 people are suspects in the investigation, including administrators of the IT infrastructure. The authorities say that the main servers in the network were located in the Netherlands, Romania, and China (Hong Kong), although no enforcement was reported there.

The action, which received funding from the European Commission, reportedly took down 2,500 illegally streamed TV channels, plus a number of servers used to manage the IPTV operation. Police also seized cryptocurrency valued at €1,650,000 and an estimated €40,000 in cash.

Prosecutor’s Office Provides Additional Detail

“On the basis of the evidence collected and to be verified in court, it appeared that the subjects from Catania and the Netherlands, with the participation of numerous other Italian and other European countries under investigation, through IT structures spread throughout the world, had carried out the conduct deemed illicit by this Office for a long period of time,” the Prosecutor’s Office explained in a statement this morning.

“These illicit activities were interrupted thanks to the seizure of these structures.”

The authorities describe a transnational organization, operating as a pyramid of suppliers, distributors, sellers, and resellers. The two-year investigation, which also involved intense monitoring of various social media platforms, identified two offices in Romania and Hong Kong, and nine servers said to be responsible for the supply of the illegal streams into Europe.

Three administrators of the service’s IT infrastructure and 80 IPTV panels used to manage subscribers, were traced to the UK and the Netherlands.

Fake identities and false documents were used to register phones, obtain credit cards, subscribe to TV channels, and rent servers. Police monitoring of IPTV forums and various profiles used to advertise the availability of streams, played a part in identifying the suspects.

Andrea Duilio, CEO of Sky Italia, the company that triggered the investigation with an initial complaint, thanked those involved.

“I would like to thank the Catania Public Prosecutor’s Office and the Postal Police, Europol, and the Audiovisual Anti-Piracy Alliance for this extraordinary operation in which we are proud to have collaborated,” Duilio said.

“These results are the fruit of great synergetic work that has allowed us to dismantle a criminal organization that operated on an international scale. Actions like this, together with the systematic contribution of Piracy Shield, that allows us to block pirate sites in real time, make the fight against a phenomenon that damages the audiovisual industry by destroying thousands of jobs, much more effective.”