Spain seizes €400K in crypto hidden in wall thermometer in manga piracy raid

Spanish police shuttered a decade‑old manga piracy hub, arrested three people in Almería, and seized €400K in crypto cold wallets hidden inside a wall‑mounted thermometer.

Spain’s National Police have shut down a decade‑old online manga piracy operation they describe as the largest Spanish‑language platform of its kind, arresting three suspects in the southern city of Almería and seizing cryptocurrency stored in hidden cold wallets. According to the police announcement, the site had been running since 2014, offering free access to a vast catalog of copyrighted comics while generating millions of euros in advertising revenue.

Investigators say the platform earned more than 4 million euros — roughly $4.3 to $4.7 million — over the past decade through aggressive pop‑up ads, including pornographic advertising shown to an audience that often included minors. The site became “the main reference point for manga piracy in Spanish,” attracting millions of monthly visits and inflicting “serious harm” on rights holders, publishers, translators, and the broader cultural industry, police said.

Cold wallets hidden in a thermometer

During a raid on a residence in Almería, officers uncovered what they described as a “complex technological setup” used to keep the piracy platform online and to monetize its traffic. In one of the operation’s more unusual details, police found two USB devices concealed inside a wall‑mounted thermometer; those drives contained cold cryptocurrency wallets with more than 400,000 euros — around $467,000 — in digital assets.

Because the wallets were offline, they could not be accessed remotely or frozen via an exchange, a tactic authorities say is increasingly common among cybercrime and piracy networks that want to keep proceeds beyond the reach of conventional seizures. Police have not yet disclosed whether they obtained the private keys or confirmed access to the funds, which remain in the custody of investigators while the case proceeds through Spain’s judicial system.

Decade‑long operation under investigation

The investigation began in June 2025 after authorities identified a platform offering unauthorized access to manga at massive scale, prompting a probe that eventually traced the operation to Almería. Alongside the main domain, officers also shut down a second website that the alleged ringleader was preparing to launch, aiming to keep the audience and revenue stream alive if the original site were taken offline.

All three suspects have been handed over to judicial authorities on suspicion of continuous intellectual property offenses, with potential additional charges linked to money laundering and tax evasion depending on how the crypto holdings and ad revenue flows are documented. The case underscores how traditional media piracy has converged with crypto‑based financial infrastructure, forcing copyright and cybercrime units to treat cold wallets and hidden hardware as routine evidence alongside servers and domains.

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