Spanish police have dismantled a decade‑old manga‑piracy operation and uncovered a surprisingly modern twist: €400,000 in crypto hidden inside a wall‑mounted thermometer.
What happened
- Spain’s National Police say they shut down what had become the largest Spanish‑language manga piracy platform, active since 2014. The site offered unauthorized access to a massive catalog of comics and attracted millions of monthly visits.
- Over the past decade the platform reportedly generated more than €4 million (roughly $4.3–4.7M) from intrusive pop‑up ads — some of them pornographic and shown to audiences that included minors — inflicting “serious harm” on rights holders, publishers and translators.
The raid and the crypto twist
- A raid on a residence in Almería resulted in three arrests and the seizure of a “complex technological setup” used to keep the operation online and monetize traffic.
- Investigators found two USB devices concealed inside a wall thermometer. Those drives contained cold cryptocurrency wallets holding more than €400,000 (about $467,000) in digital assets.
- Because the wallets were offline (cold storage), they cannot be seized via exchanges or accessed remotely — a tactic increasingly used by piracy and cybercrime groups to keep proceeds out of conventional enforcement reach. Police have not said whether they obtained the private keys or otherwise gained access to the funds; the assets remain in investigators’ custody as the case moves through Spain’s courts.
Investigation and legal fallout
- The probe began in June 2025 after authorities identified a large unauthorized manga platform and traced its infrastructure to Almería. Officers also shut down a second domain the alleged ringleader was preparing as a contingency to preserve traffic and revenue.
- All three suspects were handed over to judicial authorities on suspicion of continuous intellectual property offenses. Additional charges — including money laundering and tax evasion — may follow depending on how ad revenue and the crypto holdings are documented.
Why it matters for crypto and copyright enforcement
- The case highlights the growing convergence of traditional media piracy with crypto financial tools. Cold wallets, hidden hardware and air‑gapped devices are becoming routine pieces of evidence alongside servers and domains, posing new technical and legal challenges for investigators attempting to trace and seize illicit proceeds.
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