Police shut down illegal streaming service that was earning 250 million euros per month

In a major international operation, law enforcement agencies have dismantled a pirate streaming network that served more than 22 million users worldwide and generated monthly revenue of 250 million euros ($263 million). The operation, codenamed Taken Down – one of the largest anti-piracy operations in history, carried out by Italian police in cooperation with other countries.

What you should know

Authorities carried out 89 searches in 15 regions of Italy and 14 additional raids in the UK, the Netherlands, Sweden, Switzerland, Romania, Croatia and China, involving 102 suspects. Croatian police issued 11 arrest warrants, and three of the network's main administrators were identified in England and the Netherlands.

The illegal network distributed “copyrighted IPTV content” from platforms such as Sky, Netflix, Amazon Prime, Disney+ and others. Authorities seized more than 2,500 servers, including key infrastructure in Romania and Hong Kong, and confiscated cryptocurrencies worth 1.65 million euros.

A two-year investigation uncovered encrypted communication channels and forged documents used by the criminal network. The annual loss to broadcasters is estimated to exceed 10 billion euros.