1,069 Bitcoin Miners Steamrolled In Malaysia for Stealing Energy
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It's not a good time to be an illegal crypto mining farm. Last May, UK officers closed down a massive bitcoin mine in Great Bridge Industrial Estate, Sandwell. Last week, the Ukraine police unit exposed a massive underground crypto mining farm in the city of Vinnytsia, three hours from the capital city of Kyiv.
Now, another cryptocurrency mining farm has been shut down, this time in Malaysia. But the officers did not just close down the farm and arrest its owners they also steamrolled 1,069 of its mining rigs. Yes, you read that right: they steamrolled them with a giant machine.
According to local news outlet The Star, the event was a joint operation carried out by the police and Sarawak Energy Berhad (SEB) in Miri. The operation took place between February and April and the arrested were accused of stealing energy.
"A total of six people have been successfully charged under Section 379 of the Penal Code for electricity theft and have been fined up to RM8,000 and jailed for up to eight months," Miri police chief ACP Hakemal Hawari said in a statement.
"The electricity theft for mining bitcoin activities has caused frequent power outages and in 2021, three houses were razed due to illegal electricity supply connections."
SEB estimates they lost RM8.4mil ($2 million USD) in electricity. Local Sarawak news outlet Dayak Daily further released a video of the mining rigs being steamrolled by the police.
No outlet however was able to explain why the mining rights were handled in this way. Perhaps it is to send a message to potential bitcoin miners and energy stealers that their actions will simply not be tolerated or perhaps it was to stop anyone from stealing the miners again and reusing them. Whatever the reason, it makes for a great video that you can watch below:
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