British police raided an illegal installation mining Bitcoin that was stealing electricity because they thought it was a cannabis plant.
In a strange series of events, UK police closed a Bitcoin mine, for illegal theft of electricity, after it was revealed by police who thought it was a cannabis farm.
West Midlands law enforcement officials said they had been informed of the existence of a "crowded" unit. A police plane passing over said it was receiving a significant source of heat from its location at the Great Bridge Industrial Estate in Sandwell. Of course, the officers were convinced that they were looking at the "indicative" signs of a classic cannabis plant.
But when they entered the site on May 18, they found an array of 100 specialized bitcoin mining computers. Officials confiscated the equipment after discovering that Bitcoin miners had stolen thousands of British pounds worth of electricity to power the mode their. No one was home at the time of the raid, but police said they plan to contact the owner of the facility.
Bitcoin mining is an expensive, time-consuming task that essentially involves solving complex computational math problems for a fraction of the cost. A recent study found that the energy used to create cryptocurrencies, such as Bitcoin, is greater than the consumption of some countries, such as Sweden and the Netherlands.
Sandwell Police Chief Constable Jennifer Griffin said: “Definitely not what we expected! It had all the characteristics of one organizationof cannabis cultivation and I believe it is the second crypto mine we have come across in the West Midlands”.
He added that while cryptocurrency mining itself is not illegal in the UK, electricity theft is clearly not allowed. Police said they have no intention of returning the computers, after seizing them permanently, as a product of crime.
