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.
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