European and international law enforcement agencies have dismantled nine organised crime groups and arrested 29 suspects in a major crackdown on illegal streaming operations, in a seven-month action coordinated by Bulgaria with Europol’s support.
The operation, known as KRATOS 2, 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. Investigators targeted a wider piracy ecosystem linked to illegal streaming services rather than focusing only on individual websites.
Nine Crime Groups Dismantled
The joint action led to the removal of more than 27,000 illegal streaming URLs linked to the unauthorised distribution of copyrighted sports, film and television content. Investigators, with help from private sector partners, also identified more than 18,000 IP addresses associated with illegal services and 4,370 domains linked to piracy.
Nearly 400,000 additional URLs were flagged for suspension or removal, along with more than 126,000 additional infringing objects. Law enforcement officers also identified 86 suspects, conducted 148 house searches, referred 59 cases to judicial authorities and continued work on 72 other criminal investigations.
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Piracy Networks Used Split Infrastructure
Europol said the criminal groups behind such services deliberately separated customer-facing websites from the servers hosting illegal content. This structure allowed the networks to operate across multiple jurisdictions and made detection and prosecution more difficult.
According to Europol, investigators targeted the broader criminal ecosystem supporting the services to gather intelligence on organised groups operating behind the platforms. The approach also helped authorities identify key suspects involved in management and technical operations.
Users Warned of Cybersecurity Risks
Europol warned that illegal streaming services not only generate significant revenue for criminal rings but also expose users to serious cybersecurity risks, including malware infections, spyware and data theft.
The action followed Operation KRATOS, an earlier international anti-piracy operation carried out in summer 2024 and led by Bulgaria’s Ministry of the Interior with support from Europol and Eurojust. That operation shut down an illegal streaming network with more than 22 million users worldwide, while authorities made 11 arrests, identified 102 suspects and conducted 112 searches.
In January, Europol, Eurojust and Interpol coordinated Operation Switch Off, another global law enforcement action that resulted in the seizure of three industrial-scale illegal IPTV services. More recently, Italian authorities dismantled the CINEMAGOAL piracy platform, which provided illegal access to streaming platforms including Netflix, Disney+ and Spotify.
