BULGARIA — European and international law enforcement agencies dismantled nine organized crime groups involved in illegal streaming operations in a seven-month crackdown concluded in 2024. The operation, named KRATOS 2, was coordinated by Bulgaria with support from Europol.

Authorities from 13 countries participated in the operation, including Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, France, Greece, Ireland, Italy, the Netherlands, Poland, Romania, Spain, the United Kingdom, and the United States. Law enforcement officers arrested 29 suspects and identified 86 others during the investigation. They conducted 148 house searches and referred 59 cases to judicial authorities.

Investigators targeted the broader criminal infrastructure behind illegal streaming rather than focusing only on website takedowns. "Rather than focusing solely on taking down websites, investigators targeted the wider criminal ecosystem supporting these services," Europol said on Wednesday. "This approach enabled authorities to gather intelligence on the organised crime groups operating behind the platforms and identify key suspects involved in their management and technical operation." Europol said.

During Operation KRATOS 2, authorities removed more than 27,000 illegal streaming URLs linked to the unauthorized distribution of copyrighted sports, film, and television content. Investigators identified 4,370 domains associated with piracy and flagged nearly 400,000 additional URLs for suspension or removal. They also identified more than 126,000 infringing objects. Cooperation with private sector partners helped investigators trace over 18,000 IP addresses tied to illegal streaming services.

Europol noted that the criminal groups deliberately separate customer-facing websites from the servers hosting illegal content to operate across multiple jurisdictions and evade detection. Authorities are continuing to work on 72 other criminal investigations stemming from the operation.

Operation KRATOS 2 followed Operation KRATOS, an earlier anti-piracy effort led by Bulgaria’s Ministry of the Interior in summer 2024 with support from Europol and Eurojust. That operation shut down an illegal streaming network that had more than 22 million users worldwide, resulted in 11 arrests, identified 102 suspects, and included 112 searches.