Anti-piracy group Antipiratbyrån say police have arrested "an elite pirate" in Sweden. The man in his thirties is claimed to be an administrator of multiple 'Scene' servers carrying as many as 7,000 movies to which around 100 people had access. The man is said to have denied the charges but the prosecutor says his crimes could earn him a jail sentence.

Notorious anti-piracy group Antipiratbyrån, who have been a thorn in the side of everyone involved in file-sharing from The Pirate Bay to the recently closed Swebits, are claiming another significant victory.

Yesterday, APB’s Henrik Pontén announced that following an investigation by his organization, last Friday police swooped on a man they believe to be a significant player in the so-called warez Scene.

“He is one of the elite pirates,” Pontén said. “It is good that the police have a broad focus in their work and can act against the advanced and illegal sources of BitTorrent users.”

The man, who is said to be around 30 years old, was arrested in the small city of Gävle by local police and specialists from Sweden’s anti-piracy unit.

“It was a major crackdown,” said Paul Pintér, Coordinator at the Intellectual Property Crime Department at Stockholm police.

Initial reports claimed that the man was the administrator of servers known in the Scene as ATHF which are said to host as many as 8,300 movies, TV shows and games. While access to the servers was naturally exclusive (APB reports that around 100 people had access), it is from servers like these that the wider file-sharing community obtains much of its material.

Frederick Ingblad from the Prosecutors Office said that the early allegations against the man “had been strengthened” following the examination of seized computer hardware.

“There were nearly 7000 films stored,” Ingblad said, adding that many films had been distributed either before or shortly after their premiere.

“In this case the offense involves so many movies that conviction could result in a prison sentence,” Ingblad added.

Throughout his interview the man is believed to have denied the charges.