Spanish police, Europol bust international pirate network
Details
Juan Fernandez Gonzalez
| 13 March 2018

Six people have been arrested in Spain for a crime ring suspected of internationally distributing pirate pay-TV channels.

Following an operation carried out in recent weeks by the Spanish National Police supported by Europol’s Intellectual Property Crime Coordinated Coalition (IPC), six individuals have been arrested on suspicion of selling illegal television signals from more than 14,000 international points of sale. In addition to the arrests, the police seized 4,600 pirate set-top boxes.

The signals were sold through a company situated in the Spanish region of Galicia which had developed an application required to illegally stream films, television series and sporting events.

The investigation began when the Entidad de Gestión de Derechos de los Productores Audiovisuales (EGEDA), Mediapro and LaLiga filed a complaint with the police.

According to Europol sources, the company developed both the decoder, which was sold for €120, and the application needed to access the paid channels. The server to transmit the illegal signal was hosted in France and controlled from Spain.

Over the last year, the fight against pay-TV and content piracy has intensified in Spain, with several investigations carried out by the authorities, leading to website closures and several raids.