Illegal streaming platforms with 22 million users smashed
European law enforcement agencies have forced the shutdown of illegal streaming platforms for movies, sports, and TV series. In connection with this, Fedpol conducted a search in the canton of Zurich on Tuesday.
The Federal Office of Police Fedpol completed a request for international legal assistance submitted by Italy, as a spokesperson for the Office of the Attorney General of Switzerland told the Keystone-SDA news agency. The Office of the Attorney General of Switzerland is not currently conducting its own criminal proceedings in this connection.
In addition to the Office of the Attorney General of Switzerland and Fedpol, law enforcement authorities in Italy, Croatia, the Netherlands, Romania, Sweden and the UK were also involved in the shutdown of the streaming service, as Eurojust, the European Agency for Judicial Cooperation in Criminal Matters based in The Hague, announced on Wednesday.
Damage of 10 billion euros
22 million people worldwide had used the illegal service. On Tuesday, the servers hosting the illegal streaming services were confiscated and shut down, it was reported.
In addition to films and series, over 2500 television channels, including sports channels, were also illegally copied. The alleged perpetrators made a monthly profit of around 232.9 million Swiss francs. Eurojust estimated the economic damage to copyright holders at around CHF 9.3 billion.
More than 100 searches were carried out on 102 suspects in a large-scale operation. Eleven suspects were arrested in Croatia, it was reported. The perpetrators had communicated in encrypted form and used false identities to obtain services such as telephone and television subscriptions and credit cards.
According to the communiqué, the authorities involved worked together on the investigation at the Eurojust headquarters. Europol, the European Police Office, supported the operations. (SDA/swi)
