European and international law enforcement agencies have dismantled nine organized crime groups and arrested 29 suspects in a major crackdown on illegal streaming operations.
The seven-month "Operation KRATOS 2" was coordinated by Bulgaria with Europol's support and involved authorities from 13 countries, including Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, France, Greece, Ireland, Italy, the Netherlands, Poland, Romania, Spain, the United Kingdom, and the United States.
Cooperation with private sector partners also helped the investigators pin down over 18,000 IP addresses associated with illegal services and 4,370 domains linked to piracy, as well as nearly 400,000 additional URLs flagged for suspension or removal and more than 126,000 additional infringing objects.
In total, this joint action led to the removal of more than 27,000 illegal streaming URLs linked to the unauthorized distribution of copyrighted sports, film, and television content.
In addition to the arrests, law enforcement officers identified 86 suspects, conducted 148 house searches, referred 59 cases to judicial authorities, and are working on 72 other criminal investigations.
