SEVERAL INDEPENDENT networks responsible for illegally hacking into private satellite and cable TV stations, as well as the construction and sale of decoding equipment to the public have been caught by police following a two month investigation.
The police, through the Direcção Central de Investigação da Corrupção e da Criminalidade Económica e Financeira, the central body for the investigation of corruption, economic and financial crime, carried out raids at several private homes and at businesses selling electronic and computer equipment to the public, seizing around 3,000 items of illegal apparatus.
In some places, ‘production lines’ of illegal equipment were discovered, some apparatus had been made from scratch while, in other cases, it was found that legitimate equipment had undergone alteration.
The police have alerted the public to the fact that both the companies selling this kind of illegal equipment and related services and their clients are breaking the law. Even clients purchasing equipment unwittingly could be prosecuted should they be caught.
