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GEORGE TOWN: Police and Tenaga Nasional Berhad (TNB) conducted an integrated operation to successfully crack down on the theft of electricity supply by a group conducting Bitcoin mining activities at four facilities near here yesterday.
Penang CID chief SAC Rahimi Mohd Ra’ais said six men, aged 28 to 51, were arrested for stealing electricity by making illegal connections bypassing a meter and not being registered with TNB in an operation in Taman Seri Delima and Juru Jaya. Business Center, Bukit Mertajam, from 4 pm.
“The police, with TNB, raided the four commercial premises following intelligence and monitoring and found illegal connections in the four premises.
“Police also seized numerous equipment, including 322 Bitcoin mining machines, cell phones (five), laptops (three), modem (seven), hundreds of electrical cables and two cars,” it said in a statement.
Rahimi said the preliminary investigation found that the two- and three-story facilities had been used for the activity for a year, causing hundreds of thousands of ringgits in monthly losses to TNB.
“Typically, these unions will search two- and three-story business premises before conducting their activities on the upper floor to avoid detection because the process emits a loud noise,” he said.
Rahimi said that two of the six men had criminal records, three of them were detained for three days and the rest for four days.
He said the case was being investigated under sections 379 and 427 of the Penal Code.
It is understood that each of the facility owners could get hundreds of thousands of ringgit each month from bitcoin mining activities.
