The Kosovo Police, in cooperation with EUROPOL and under the coordination of the District Prosecutor’s Office of Catania, carried out a police operation on 22 January as part of a large-scale international investigation into illegal IPTV piracy.
The operation was led by the Special Prosecution of the Republic of Kosovo (SPRK) and focused on the verification, identification, and seizure of relevant evidence related to audiovisual piracy and financial crime.
According to the SPRK, search warrants executed in Kosovo represented a key procedural step within a broader international operation targeting financial crime and audiovisual piracy, which resulted in money laundering and unlawful financial gains across several countries, including Kosovo.
Investigations revealed that one of the suspects is a Kosovo citizen with the initials P.B.
By order of the SPRK, police investigators from the Economic Crimes Investigation Sector conducted raids at two locations in Prishtina and in the village of Zaplluxhë, Dragash municipality, on suspicion of committing the criminal offenses of “Violation of Copyright” and “Money Laundering.”
The operation, carried out simultaneously in the United Kingdom, Spain, Italy, and Romania, led to the dismantling of an IT infrastructure that illegally provided IPTV services to millions of users at national and international levels through a sophisticated IPTV system.
Authorities from Canada, India, South Korea, and the United Arab Emirates also cooperated in the investigation.
During the raids in Kosovo, one computer and four hard drives were seized as evidence.
