
The Malaysian Police from the Johor State has announced that they have managed to conduct an operation against a Bitcoin (BTC) mining gang. The police authorities have revealed that the gang consisted of 7 members who were involved in stealing electricity for Bitcoin (BTC) mining.
According to the authorities, the total electricity that the gang managed to steal was worth 8.6 million Malaysian ringgits. At the time of publishing, the 8.6 million Malaysian ringgits translate into $2.15 million.
It has been revealed that the gang was stealing electricity in order to carry out Bitcoin (BTC) mining. Not only Bitcoin (BTC), but the gang was also involved in mining other cryptocurrencies through their illegal mining sectors.
The Malaysian Police have added in their report that they have managed to seize a total of 1,746 machines that were used for mining Bitcoin (BTC). The gang was mining Bitcoin (BTC) not only on one location but they were doing this through 21 different locations.
The policy has revealed that they had carried out raids against the Bitcoin (BTC) mining gang between February 15, 2021, and February 16, 2021. The report also states that the mining machines they have confiscated are worth over 2.6 million ringgits that translates to around $650,000.
By conducting raids at 21 different premises, the police managed to arrest 7 members of the gang. The arrested gang members were aged between the rage of 24 and 64. The operation also involved Tenaga Nasional Berhad (TNB), which is a domestic power company.
The local authorities have confirmed that the syndicate had been involved in cryptocurrency mining activities since the beginning of 2020. To make sure that the platform never caught the attention of the authorities, the mining facility was based on the top floor of a shop-house.
The above information was shared by the Datuk Ayob Khan who is the chief of police at Johor. He confirmed that this is not the end of this syndicate as the mastermind behind this entire project is still somewhere out there. Therefore, the police will keep investigating in order to trace the mastermind as well as the entire gang.
Ayob Khan stated that although they are in the initial phase of their investigation, yet they are not ruling out the possibility that the same syndicate would be running their business in other states as well.
According to the chief of the police at Johor, the recent activities surrounding the illegal mining of Bitcoin (BTC) have turned out to be very bad for the domestic power company.
He stated that in the last year, the TNB suffered a loss of around 90 million ringgits due to thefts in electricity for Bitcoin (BTC) mining.