The Dutch Tax Information and Investigation Service (FIOD), together with the Europol agency, has taken down an illegal IPTV (Internet Protocol Television) service serving more than one million users across Europe and in Morocco.
On May 23, a series of raids were carried out across the Netherlands as part of an illegal streaming crackdown. FIOD officers searched properties at various locations in the Netherlands. Several people suspected of being involved in the illegal streaming of premium content have been arrested, said a statement from Europol without citing the name of the provider.
According to the same source, the packages purchased by subscribers gave them access to more than 10,000 live TV channels, as well as a library of 15,000 movies and TV shows.
Europol’s European Financial and Economic Crime Center backed this investigation with analytical support, helping to identify key targets and their criminal activities across Europe.
Several operational meetings have been organized by Europol to bring together investigators from the various European countries involved in this criminal network, the agency said.
Europol experts were also deployed to various locations in the Netherlands during the day of action to support the FIOD in its law enforcement activities.
This operation is part of the fight against audiovisual piracy. It has a negative impact on Moroccan households who are increasingly turning to IPTV because of its low cost and the high cost of subscriptions.
In November 2022, a similar operation had already taken place. A few days before the launch of the official matches of the Qatar 2022 World Cup, the Alliance for Creativity and Entertainment (ACE), an association dedicated to protecting the ecosystem of creative content, had succeeded in closing the main sites. sports content piracy website operating in Morocco.
In 2021, ACE had managed to put an end to the pirating activities of the Electro TV Sat platform. This operator gave Moroccans illegal access to 6,000 channels and 200,000 films and series on the Web, with 90,000 visitors per month.
That said, Moroccans who often depend on free websites and IPTV to watch content must now find another legal solution to be able to watch their favorite programs or buy a subscription.