Italian Police, under the coordination of the Catania Public Prosecutor's Office, have completed Operation "Taken Down" the largest action against audiovisual piracy ever conducted in Italy and Europe. The dismantled criminal network illegally served more than 22 million users, generating a turnover of more than 250 million euros per month. The operation involved more than 270 Postal Police officers in 89 searches conducted in 15 Italian regions. With the support of foreign Police forces, another 14 searches were conducted in the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Sweden, Switzerland, Romania and Croatia, involving a total of 102 people. In Croatia, 11 suspects were given pre-trial detention orders. During the operation, more than 2,500 illegal channels and servers that operated most of the pirated signals in Europe were seized. These technological tools formed the basis of a system that allowed the broadcasting of audiovisual content without a license, depriving legitimate companies of huge profits. The operation was planned in collaboration with Eurojust and Europol, under the operational leadership of the Postal Police and Cyber Security Service, with the support of the @on (Operation Network), funded by the European Commission and coordinated by the Anti-Mafia Investigation Division (DIA).
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