London:
Drugs police in central England spotted the inform-tale indicators of a cannabis farm: guests at all hours, substantial wiring, ventilation ducts and uncommon amounts of heat becoming generated.
But on closer inspection, they exposed one more operation reliant on enormous energy usage: a cryptocurrency mine that was stealing electrical energy from the national grid.
A raid by West Midlands Police uncovered the illicit operation at an industrial estate northwest of Birmingham, Britain’s second city.
#CountyLines | During the week we executed a drugs warrant at a premises on a #Sandwell industrial unit – and uncovered a #cryptocurrency mine.
⚡️ The set-up was stealing thousands of pounds worth of electrical energy from the mains provide.
More ➡️ https://t.co/zkhPzOSUVzpic.twitter.com/0fjJdcfMUp
— West Midlands Police (@WMPolice) May 28, 2021
“It’s certainly not what we were expecting,” Sergeant Jennifer Griffin stated Friday.
“It had all the hallmarks of a cannabis cultivation set-up and I believe it’s only the second such crypto mine we’ve encountered in the West Midlands.”
Police believed this operation was mining bitcoin, she added.
The website housed about one hundred computer systems and had bypassed electrical energy meters. It was empty at the time and no arrests have been made, but police stated they have been investigating the unit’s owner.
Mining cryptocurrency is a hugely power-intensive method requiring massive amounts of electrical energy in giant information centres.
Bitcoin mining alone makes use of the similar quantity of electrical energy a year as Switzerland does, according to Deutsche Bank analysts.
Iran’s President Hassan Rouhani on Wednesday announced a 4-month ban on all cryptocurrency mining, just after his power minister apologised for unplanned energy cuts in key cities blamed on unlicensed miners.
In mid-May, entrepreneur Elon Musk’s Tesla stopped accepting bitcoin as payment for its electric automobiles, citing issues about the damaging environmental effects of mining cryptocurrencies.
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