{"id":30347,"date":"2026-02-01T09:26:22","date_gmt":"2026-02-01T14:26:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/?p=30347"},"modified":"2026-02-01T09:26:22","modified_gmt":"2026-02-01T14:26:22","slug":"bulgarian-torrent-giants-zamunda-zelka-and-arenabg-seized-in-joint-u-s-bulgarian-operation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/2026\/02\/01\/bulgarian-torrent-giants-zamunda-zelka-and-arenabg-seized-in-joint-u-s-bulgarian-operation\/","title":{"rendered":"Bulgarian Torrent Giants Zamunda, Zelka, and ArenaBG Seized in Joint U.S.-Bulgarian Operation"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>After more than two decades of surviving legal and political pressure, several titans of the Bulgarian file-sharing scene were dealt a major blow today. In what appears to be a coordinated international strike, law enforcement authorities from the U.S. and Bulgaria have seized the domain names of ArenaBG.com, Zamunda.net, and Zelka.org. While this is a serious crackdown, it doesn&#8217;t come as a complete surprise.<\/p>\n<p>Five years ago, Bulgaria informed the U.S. authorities that it\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/torrentfreak.com\/bulgaria-plans-to-take-down-top-torrent-sites-with-u-s-assistance-200403\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">would like to shut down prominent torrent trackers<\/a>\u00a0such as ArenaBG, Zamunda, and Zelka.<\/p>\n<p>To get that done, the Eastern European country specifically asked the U.S. Government for assistance.<\/p>\n<p>Today, it appears that these shutdown plans have finally come to fruition, at least as far as the domain names go. A few hours ago, three of the largest torrent trackers became unreachable, directing users to a seizure banner.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis domain has been seized by Homeland Security Investigations as part of an international law enforcement operation in accordance with a court order issued by the United States District Court for the Southern District of Mississippi,\u201d the banner reads.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><center><em>Seized<\/em><\/center>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><center><picture class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-276516\"><source srcset=\"https:\/\/torrentfreak.com\/images\/seizedBR.jpg.webp 1280w, https:\/\/torrentfreak.com\/images\/seizedBR-300x169.jpg.webp 300w\" type=\"image\/webp\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\" \/><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/torrentfreak.com\/images\/seizedBR.jpg\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\" srcset=\"https:\/\/torrentfreak.com\/images\/seizedBR.jpg 1280w, https:\/\/torrentfreak.com\/images\/seizedBR-300x169.jpg 300w, https:\/\/torrentfreak.com\/images\/seizedBR-600x338.jpg 600w, https:\/\/torrentfreak.com\/images\/seizedBR-150x84.jpg 150w\" alt=\"seized\" width=\"600\" height=\"338\" \/><\/picture><\/center>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>The listed law enforcement logos are, from left to right:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ)<\/strong>\u00a0\u2013 United States<\/li>\n<li><strong>Homeland Security Investigations (HSI)<\/strong>\u00a0\u2013 United States<\/li>\n<li><strong>National IPR Coordination Center<\/strong>\u00a0\u2013 United States<\/li>\n<li><strong>Europol<\/strong>\u00a0\u2013 European Union<\/li>\n<li><strong>GDBOP (General Directorate for Combating Organized Crime)<\/strong>\u00a0\u2013 Bulgaria<\/li>\n<li><strong>National Investigative Service (\u041d\u0421\u043b\u0421)<\/strong>\u00a0\u2013 Bulgaria<\/li>\n<li><strong>State Agency for National Security (DANS)<\/strong>\u00a0\u2013 Bulgaria<\/li>\n<li><strong>Prosecutor\u2019s Office of the Republic of Bulgaria<\/strong>\u00a0\u2013 Bulgaria<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>The order issued by the Mississippi federal court purportedly compelled the domain name registrars or the domain registries to take action. With domain names linked to American domain intermediaries, this explains why it would be crucial for the U.S. to be involved.<\/p>\n<p>At the time of writing, ArenaBG.com, Zamunda.net, and Zelka.org all point to\u00a0<em>seizedservers.com<\/em>\u00a0nameservers, which means that the domains are now controlled by the U.S. authorities.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><center><em>Zamunda\u2019s nameservers<\/em><\/center>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><center><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-276526\" src=\"https:\/\/torrentfreak.com\/images\/zamundans.png\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 450px) 100vw, 450px\" srcset=\"https:\/\/torrentfreak.com\/images\/zamundans.png 638w, https:\/\/torrentfreak.com\/images\/zamundans-300x74.png 300w, https:\/\/torrentfreak.com\/images\/zamundans-600x149.png 600w, https:\/\/torrentfreak.com\/images\/zamundans-150x37.png 150w\" alt=\"dns\" width=\"450\" height=\"111\" \/><\/center>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>To give an idea of the popularity of these sites, Zamunda.net was up until recently the 11th most visited website in Bulgaria with millions of monthly visitors.<\/p>\n<p>The authorities in Bulgaria previously said that \u201cpre-trial proceedings were opened\u201d against torrent trackers for \u201cintellectual property and tax crimes.\u201d However, it is not clear if today\u2019s actions go beyond the domain seizures.<\/p>\n<p>In the past, Bulgaria has asked the U.S. for assistance to seize the physical servers of Zamunda. However, thus far there is no information about additional enforcement actions. We have also yet to see a press release from the authorities formally confirming the action.<\/p>\n<p>If the current action is limited to the domain names the sites will likely switch to alternative ones, as we have seen with\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/torrentfreak.com\/feds-seize-domain-names-of-sports-streaming-site-streameast-240819\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">other seizures<\/a>\u00a0in the past.<\/p>\n<p>\u2014<\/p>\n<p><em>Note: This is a breaking story, and we will continue to monitor the situation and may add updates when more information comes in.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Source: \u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/torrentfreak.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/torrentfreak.png\" alt=\"TorrentFreak\" width=\"38\" height=\"38\" \/><\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/torrentfreak.com\/bulgarian-torrent-giants-zamunda-zelka-and-arenabg-seized-in-joint-u-s-bulgarian-operation\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">TorrentFreak.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<div class=\"mh-excerpt\">After more than two decades of surviving legal and political pressure, several titans of the Bulgarian file-sharing scene were dealt a major blow today. In what appears to be a coordinated international strike, law enforcement <a class=\"mh-excerpt-more\" href=\"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/2026\/02\/01\/bulgarian-torrent-giants-zamunda-zelka-and-arenabg-seized-in-joint-u-s-bulgarian-operation\/\" title=\"Bulgarian Torrent Giants Zamunda, Zelka, and ArenaBG Seized in Joint U.S.-Bulgarian Operation\">[&#8230;]<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":30348,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pmpro_default_level":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2,3,6],"tags":[12092,3225,12100,12101,12102,9019,3226,12091,12098,12099,10531,985,12097,12103,12104,12105,12095,12096,12093,12094],"class_list":{"0":"post-30347","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-news","8":"category-usa","9":"category-world","10":"tag-arenabg","11":"tag-bulgaria","12":"tag-bulgaria-national-investigative-service","13":"tag-bulgaria-state-agency-for-national-security","14":"tag-dans","15":"tag-domain-seizures","16":"tag-europol","17":"tag-file-sharing","18":"tag-gdbop","19":"tag-general-directorate-for-combating-organized-crime","20":"tag-homeland-security-investigations","21":"tag-intellectual-property","22":"tag-national-ipr-coordination-center","23":"tag-prosecutors-office-of-the-republic-of-bulgaria","24":"tag-seizedservers-com","25":"tag-tax-crimes","26":"tag-torrent-tracking","27":"tag-us-district-court-for-the-southern-district-of-mississippi","28":"tag-zamunda","29":"tag-zelka","30":"pmpro-has-access"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30347","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=30347"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30347\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":30349,"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30347\/revisions\/30349"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/30348"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30347"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30347"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=30347"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}