Police Dismantle Nine Crime Groups in Illegal Streaming Crackdown

European and international law enforcement agencies have dismantled nine organized crime groups and arrested 29 suspects as part of a major crackdown on illegal streaming operations.

The seven-month investigation, known as Operation KRATOS 2, was coordinated by Bulgarian authorities with support from Europol. The operation involved law enforcement agencies from 13 countries, including Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, France, Greece, Ireland, Italy, the Netherlands, Poland, Romania, Spain, the United Kingdom, and the United States.

Investigators also worked with private-sector partners to identify and disrupt the infrastructure behind the illegal streaming networks. Authorities traced more than 18,000 IP addresses connected to illegal services, 4,370 piracy-related domains, nearly 400,000 additional URLs flagged for suspension or removal, and more than 126,000 other infringing digital objects.

In total, the coordinated action resulted in the removal of more than 27,000 illegal streaming URLs used to distribute copyrighted sports, film, and television content without authorization.

Law enforcement officers also identified 86 suspects, carried out 148 house searches, referred 59 cases to judicial authorities, and are continuing work on 72 related criminal investigations.

According to Europol, the criminal groups behind these services often separate customer-facing websites from the servers hosting pirated content. This allows them to spread operations across multiple countries, making detection, takedown efforts, and prosecution more difficult.

Rather than focusing only on shutting down websites, investigators targeted the broader criminal ecosystem supporting the platforms. This approach helped authorities gather intelligence on the groups operating the services and identify key suspects involved in their management, infrastructure, and technical operations.

Europol also warned that illegal streaming services can expose users to serious cybersecurity risks. Beyond generating significant revenue for criminal networks, these platforms may be used to distribute malware, spyware, and other tools designed to steal personal data.

Operation KRATOS 2 follows the original Operation KRATOS, an international anti-piracy action carried out in summer 2024. That operation, led by Bulgaria’s Ministry of the Interior with support from Europol and Eurojust, shut down an illegal streaming network with more than 22 million users worldwide. It also led to 11 arrests, 102 identified suspects, and 112 searches.

Authorities have continued to intensify their focus on large-scale piracy networks. In January, Europol, Eurojust, and Interpol coordinated Operation Switch Off, which led to the seizure of three industrial-scale illegal IPTV services. More recently, Italian authorities dismantled the CINEMAGOAL piracy platform, which allegedly provided illegal access to streaming platforms including Netflix, Disney+, and Spotify.

The latest operation highlights law enforcement’s growing focus on targeting not only piracy websites, but the full technical and financial infrastructure that allows illegal streaming networks to operate at scale.