The application, available on several websites and platforms, was streaming videos and TV channels via a number of connected websites and platforms located in Spain and Portugal, with connections to servers in Czechia.
Europol, the European Union’s law enforcement agency, supported the Spanish National Police (Policía Nacional) to dismantle a criminal group distributing the illegal video streams. The investigation also involved law enforcement authorities from Andorra and Portugal.
The investigation started in October 2018 when the Spanish National Police received complaint reports from the Alliance for Creativity and Entertainment, Football Association Pretoria, the Premier League and the Spanish Football League (La Liga Espanola de Fútbol) about a mobile application illegally distributing video streams. The application, downloaded by more than 100 million users via different websites, illegally offered the streaming of videos and TV channels.
The Spanish company behind the illegal activity earned its profits through advertisements. Through the computer infrastructure and power, they were able to sell user information to a company related to botnet and DDoS attacks. Investigators estimate the overall illegal profits at more than €5 million.
The investigation resulted in 3 house searches (2 in Spain and 1 in Andorra), 4 court orders to take down domains, 20 web domains and servers blocked, 4 arrests (3 in Spain and 1 in Andorra), Bank accounts frozen plus 1 server taken down in Portugal and another one under investigation in Czechia.
