Suspected marijuana farm turns out to be a Bitcoin mine that was stealing electricity...

[Shawn Knight]

In brief: When UK police conducted a raid of a suspected cannabis farm last week, they were surprised to find no marijuana. They found a farm, mind you, it was just of the digital variety. Crypto mining isn't illegal in the region, but stealing the electricity to power the operation is.

West Midlands Police said they had been tipped off that lots of people had been visiting the industrial unit in question. Upon closer inspection, they noted lots of wiring and ventilation ducts. Furthermore, police drones detected a considerable amount of heat coming from the top of the facility.

Police concluded it must be a marijuana growing operation, so they acquired a warrant and executed it on May 18.

Instead of drugs, they found a cryptocurrency mine. The people seen visiting at all hours of the day were likely just maintaining the hardware. The wiring, vents and heat? All par for the course when mining cryptocurrency.

It wasn’t a total bust, however, as it was determined that the operators were stealing the electricity used to power the rigs.

“It’s certainly not what we were expecting,” said Sandwell Police Sergeant Jennifer Griffin. “My understanding is that mining for cryptocurrency is not itself illegal but clearly abstracting electricity from the mains supply to power it is.”

Police seized the equipment and will be looking to take ownership of it through the Proceeds of Crime Act. No arrests have been made as the unit was unoccupied at the time of the raid but police are looking to get in contact with the facility’s owner.

Permalink to story.

https://www.techspot.com/news/89859-suspected-marijuana-farm-turns-out-bitcoin-mine-stealing.html

 

[m4a4]

Ha! They probably could've also been growing weed on the side to take advantage of the heat lol.

 

[Achaios]

Τhis is what you're up against.

Now the Maf has officially moved into mining instead of simply smuggling and selling GPUs.

This does not bode well for gamers and in the meantime, Leatherman Tsao, NVIDIA's CEO said that they expect GPU shortages to continue well into 2022.

RIP.

 

[VitalyT]

What are you smoking guys - bitcoin?

Nope, they are making bitcoin to pay for Cannabis online.

 

[R00sT3R]

As far as criminal Bticoin mining operations go, that looks embarrassingly amateurish & small time.

..they could at least take some pride in their work.

 

[seeprime]

The police "suspected" illegal cannabis growing. Okay. Now, maybe some of them realize that their limited understanding of technology needs to be improved upon. The world doesn't need cops that can't think outside the box. So, let's get them educated, so they're less ignorant and less aggressive. I can hope, anyway.

 

[Lionvibez]

Ha! They probably could've also been growing weed on the side to take advantage of the heat lol.

Growing weed and mining at the same location would have just double the heat output, which would have just raised the red flag sooner for the cops not a great idea.

 

[m4a4]

Growing weed and mining at the same location would have just double the heat output, which would have just raised the red flag sooner for the cops not a great idea.

From what I understand, you need heat for the plants, plus a lot of light. The heat can be supplied by mining, and efficient lights don't give off much heat.

If done smart, I'd imagine that the only thing that would do is increase the amount of electricity leeched...

 

[waclark]

It wasn’t a total bust, however, as it was determined that the operators were stealing the electricity used to power the rigs.

"stealing" electricity? Say it ain't so. Don't we have a fundamental right to free power? Just like free healthcare? The UK has universal healthcare, why not universal power? I mean, it could be unhealthy not to have power.

These guys are just political pawns in an evil game to keep the people down by limiting the amount of power they can consume.

 

[Stingy McDuck]

That night, one of the cops was finally able to play Cyberpunk 2077 at max settings...

 

[Lew Zealand]

At least those look like ASIC miners and not GPUs. Could be worse.

 

[brucek]

"West Midlands Police said they had been tipped off that lots of people had been visiting the industrial unit in question"

Any industrial unit has some employees. Why would a crypto (or pot) farming operation have so vastly more than others that it caused a police inquiry?

 

[defaultluser]

Τhis is what you're up against.

Now the Maf has officially moved into mining instead of simply smuggling and selling GPUs.

This does not bode well for gamers and in the meantime, Leatherman Tsao, NVIDIA's CEO said that they expect GPU shortages to continue well into 2022.

RIP.

Well, at least Nvidia is making it harder by Product Segmentation.

It's better than AMD's lazy-*** plan (just raise prices fer everyone!)

 

[Avro Arrow]

It wasn’t a total bust, however, as it was determined that the operators were stealing the electricity used to power the rigs.

"stealing" electricity? Say it ain't so. Don't we have a fundamental right to free power? Just like free healthcare? The UK has universal healthcare, why not universal power? I mean, it could be unhealthy not to have power.

These guys are just political pawns in an evil game to keep the people down by limiting the amount of power they can consume.

I agree that having free electricity paid for through taxes would be a great thing since the utility companies are often government-owned already. It would also encourage governments to invest in cheaper and cleaner sources of electricity like hydro, geo-thermal, wind and solar.

 

[waclark]

I agree that having free electricity paid for through taxes would be a great thing since the utility companies are often government-owned already. It would also encourage governments to invest in cheaper and cleaner sources of electricity like hydro, geo-thermal, wind and solar.

When have you ever known the government to invest in cheaper sources of anything? I would rather see cheap power for all. Government provided power just means people will use excessive amounts because it doesn't cost them anything.

The government is not here to provide for your every need, nor should they. That's what feudal England looked like a few hundred years ago, and it wasn't pretty.

 

[Avro Arrow]

When have you ever known the government to invest in cheaper sources of anything? I would rather see cheap power for all. Government provided power just means people will use excessive amounts because it doesn't cost them anything.

The government is not here to provide for your every need, nor should they. That's what feudal England looked like a few hundred years ago, and it wasn't pretty.

I don't know about the UK but ask a person in Texas about their power bill of $35,000USD from their privatised power grid which they got charged if their power DIDN'T go out during that freak snow storm. Yeah, privatisation is SOOOOO WONDERFUL (you've got to be kidding me).

In Canada, our governmental power systems work extremely well, especially Hydro-Quebec, the largest producer of hydropower in North America and third-largest in the world. Maybe YOUR government sucks at things like that but mine sure as hell does not. Canada is overwhelmingly powered by hydropower which is clean, cheap, constant and plentiful. We also have nuclear in Ontario and New Brunswick. So yes, I DO know my government to invest in cheap, clean and plentiful sources of energy.

I'm a UK citizen by descent and I've never heard of such problems so you'll pardon me if I don't take your word at face value. It seems to me that you'd be much happier living in some neo-fascist country with no regulation on private companies whatsoever. I think that you might enjoy one of those countries. They used to be called "The Third World".

Bon Voyage!

 

[HafizNafes89]

As far as criminal Bticoin mining operations go, that looks embarrassingly amateurish & small time.

..they could at least take some pride in their work.

I'm with you on that, the cable management is trash! They could also stand to include some RGB for increased performance for faster mining as well!

 

[mbk34]

The police "suspected" illegal cannabis growing. Okay. Now, maybe some of them realize that their limited understanding of technology needs to be improved upon. The world doesn't need cops that can't think outside the box. So, let's get them educated, so they're less ignorant and less aggressive. I can hope, anyway.

Can't see why you said that as they weren't being ignorant or aggressive. They were just working with the clues they had and a cannabis farm seemed the most likely explanation.

 

[captaincranky]

Can't see why you said that as they weren't being ignorant or aggressive. They were just working with the clues they had and a cannabis farm seemed the most likely explanation.

I would think the gamer types here would be outraged at the stealing electricity aspect of the operation. "Whaa, we can't even get video cards, and these douches have as many as the want, and free electricity to boot".<(pun intended)

 

[Gastec]

It wasn’t a total bust, however, as it was determined that the operators were stealing the electricity used to power the rigs.

"stealing" electricity? Say it ain't so. Don't we have a fundamental right to free power? Just like free healthcare? The UK has universal healthcare, why not universal power? I mean, it could be unhealthy not to have power.

These guys are just political pawns in an evil game to keep the people down by limiting the amount of power they can consume.

You are free to take as much power from the Sun as you can. Why should other people give you electricity for free? "Universal" healthcare is paid for from taxes, you want a tax for "universal" electricity on your salary? It can be done and it probably will be done in the future, you will end up being taxed for everything, even the very air you breathe. But to want free stuff without working for it, that sounds a bit too "progressive", of the hypster, neo-marxist kind

 

[Markoni35]

You are free to take as much power from the Sun as you can.

Yeah, but solar collectors can deplete the solar energy and squeeze our Sun dry. We don't want a premature ending of our star.

 

[Gastec]

Yeah, but solar collectors can deplete the solar energy and squeeze our Sun dry. We don't want a premature ending of our star.

I meant directly, like Kal-El But if mister Clark ^^ up there ends up depleting the Sun, so be it.

 

[terzaerian]

Leave it to Techspot to always cover stories like this and not stories like this:

https://cryptoslate.com/bitcoin-farm-in-montana-to-use-solar-energy-for-mining/

To stoke fear and outrage towards mining.

And leave it to her readers to constantly confuse mining ASICs with video cards. You'd be closer to the mark blaming Ford Trucks for your sub-optimal Call of Duty frames.

 

[captaincranky]

Leave it to Techspot to always cover stories like this and not stories like this:

To stoke fear and outrage towards mining.

And leave it to her readers to constantly confuse mining ASICs with video cards. You'd be closer to the mark blaming Ford Trucks for your sub-optimal Call of Duty frames.

Well, simply because one person on any given block buys an electric car, doesn't mean the whole block is, "environmentally friendly"

Are you suggesting this story should have been "censored", or just not published?

 

[terzaerian]

Well, simply because one person on any given block buys an electric car, doesn't mean the whole block is, "environmentally friendly"

Are you suggesting this story should have been "censored", or just not published?

I will put credit where credit is due wrt their general coverage and explanation of the mechanics of crypto, which have been balanced so far. But their reporting on mining specific stories has overall had a consistent slant to it, always doom and gloom and fear stoking. They've really had it out for Chiacoin in particular, which is ironic seeing as Chiacoin was specifically made to address the problems with traditional energy-hungry proof-of-work mining. The report on the internet cafe using their cards to mine to survive COVID shutdowns has been the one outstanding token exception I can recall.