Law enforcement agencies from 27 countries participated in the 13th edition of Operation In Our Sites, a Europol-coordinated operation to take down websites offering counterfeit goods or involved in online piracy. The recurring operation, which is supported by Eurojust and INTERPOL, targets, investigates and seizes websites hosting a variety of illicit content.
The main issues continue to be intellectual property infringement on trademarks, as well as on copyrighted content available on Internet protocol television (IPTV) and movie streaming services, peer-to-peer sharing platforms and hosting websites.
The countries involved in the take downs include: Albania, Belgium, Bulgaria, Brazil, Colombia, Croatia, Czech Republic, Denmark, France, Georgia, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Kosovo, Lithuania, Malta, Moldova, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Portugal, Romania, Slovenia, Spain, Switzerland, United Kingdom, and the United States
In the course of the operation, 10 search warrants were issued and 14 people were detained or formally accused of intellectual property crimes. In one specific action, Spanish Police arrested four people and one person was formally charged. According to a preliminary investigation, the prime suspect was earning up to €150,000 ($155,014.65 U.S.) a month and living a lavish lifestyle in a luxury house, driving expensive cars and embarking on extravagant vacations all over the world.
The criminal network dedicated itself to large-scale marketing and distribution of pirated audio-visual content on the Internet. As part of the operation, Spanish police disconnected 32 servers hosting the illicit content and seized cash, documents and two luxury vehicles.
The Bulgarian Cybercrime Unit investigated a criminal network using Facebook accounts and websites to sell counterfeit clothes imitating well-known brands. In a coordinated action, a number of house searches were conducted and a workshop with sewing and embossing machines was discovered.
Law enforcement shut down web sites that focused on selling counterfeit goods such as manufacturing faux name-brand products or conducted online piracy. House searches discovered a workshop with sewing and embossing machines.
Source: Europol
Authorities seized fake stickers, the labels of well-known trademarks, unbranded articles ready to be processed, 600 counterfeit articles worth EUR 35 000 ($36,170.08 U.S.) and an illegally possessed firearm.
These discoveries show once more that the manufacturing of counterfeit products increasingly takes place within the European Union. Additionally, it emphasizes the growing overlap of intellectual property crimes with tax evasion and money laundering. The high-profit nature of the criminal activities also reaffirms the importance of law enforcement in conducting financial investigations and asset recovery concurrently.