Large IPTV Piracy Ring Shut Down by Spanish Police and Europol * TorrentFreak News ▼ Piracy Piracy Research Law and Politics Lawsuits Anti-Piracy Technology Contact Subscribe Large IPTV Piracy Ring Shut Down by Spanish Police and Europol April 7, 2017 by Ernesto Van der Sar Home > News > Police in Spain have shut down a large IPTV piracy operation with help from Europol and Bulgarian authorities. The group was operating through two legitimate ISPs in Spain and Bulgaria, which were allegedly set up to facilitate the illegal offering. Eight people have been arrested in connection with the piracy ring. Increasingly, people are trading in their expensive cable subscriptions, to use cheaper or free Internet TV instead. In recent years this has become much more convenient with help from a variety of easy-to-use media players, Kodi boxes included. Following this trend, there has also been an uptick in the availability of unlicensed TV streams, with vendors offering virtually any channel imaginable, for free or in exchange for a small fee. Rightsholders are not happy with this development and are actively cracking down on sellers of these illicit services and devices. This week one of the largest IPTV piracy groups was dismantled in Europe. The operation was headed by the Spanish National Police, with help from Bulgarian authorities, Europol and Eurojust. The investigation was triggered by a complaint from the UK-based Premier League. In total, 12 searches were carried out in both Spain and Bulgaria, leading to the arrest of eight people that are allegedly connected to the dismantled piracy group. Spanish police carrying out the raid The enforcement effort, dubbed “Operation Casper,” found that the piracy ring was operating through several shell companies. Two legitimate ISPs were setup in Spain and Bulgaria, through which the group offered their IPTV services. “Operation Casper began when a representative from a broadcast rights holder filed a complaint against the owner of an Internet Service Provider located in Málaga (Spain), for illicitly distributing pay-TV channels to thousands of clients in different EU countries,” Europol writes. “Investigators also unveiled the existence of a second ISP in Silistra (Bulgaria) owned by the network, which was permanently connected to the ISP in Spain and provided coverage to other European countries.” The owner of the two ISPs is a Danish citizen, the investigation revealed. This man is being seen as the mastermind behind the IPTV piracy ring which offered its services throughout Europe. This is not the first time that Spanish police have raided a company that provides unauthorized IPTV services. A similar operation took place last year. That case was also based on a Premier League complaint and involved a local Internet provider as well. Next Post Previous Post Tagged In: europol iptv You Might Also Like: Lawsuits Hollywood Secures $9 Million Default Judgment Against IPTV Operator June 12, 2026, 12:56 by Ernesto Van der Sar Piracy Court Holds New York IPTV Box Seller Liable, Millions of Damages at Stake June 11, 2026, 07:21 by Ernesto Van der Sar Anti-Piracy Streaming Piracy Crackdown ‘KRATOS 2’ Leads to 29 Arrests, Targets Remain Unknown June 4, 2026, 09:34 by Ernesto Van der Sar Sponsors Popular Posts Which VPN Providers Really Take Privacy Seriously? Supreme Court Wipes Out Record Labels’ $1 Billion Piracy Judgment Against Cox Unreleased Movie Screeners Leak Online, Including Star-Studded ‘In the Hand of Dante’ Former #1 Movie Piracy Site “Strongly Linked” to Global Infostealer Activity Feds Seize Domain Names of Sports Streaming Site Streameast From 2 Years ago… .cycle-slide" data-cycle-prev="#widget-slider-prev" data-cycle-next="#widget-slider-next" Suprnova’s Founder Speaks: 20 Years, Many Lessons, and a YouTube Empire Windows 11: Microsoft Slowly Starts Taking Down Leaked ISO Vladimir Putin’s Internet Adviser Owns a Torrent Site TorrentFreak Stats Breaking news stories 179k Social media followers 19.9k RSS subscribers Copyright · AI Training & Data Mining Policy · Privacy Policy · VPN Providers · About TorrentFreak