Huge police op agst illegal streaming in Italy, 7 countries

(ANSA) - ROME, NOV 27 - Italian police on Wednesday cracked down on illegal streaming in Italy and seven other countries in the biggest ever operation against audio-visual piracy ever in Europe.
    The police, coordinated by the Catania Public Prosecutor's Office, carried out Operation Takendown, dismantling the most widespread transnational criminal organization that illegally served over 22 million users.
    Over 270 postal police officers carried out 89 searches in 15 Italian regions and, with the collaboration of foreign police forces, 14 searches in the United Kingdom, Holland, Sweden, Switzerland, Romania and Croatia, against 102 people.
    The Croatian police executed precautionary custody orders against 11 people under investigation.
    As part of the police operation, over 2,500 illegal channels and servers were seized that managed the majority of illicit signals in Europe that allowed an illegal business of over 250 million euros per month.
    The operation, planned by the international judicial authorities Eurojust and Europol, was operationally coordinated by the Postal Police Service and for Cyber ;;Security with the support of the operational network @on (operation network), financed by the European Commission and led by the DIA, the national anti-mafia investigative directorate. (ANSA).