The Spanish police were surprised; while she was on the trail of a marijuana plantation, she ended up stumbling across an illegal bitcoin (BTC) mining farm.
According to Xataka media and an official police report, officers were investigating what they initially believed to be an “indoor marijuana plantation” in stables in Santiponce, a small town near Seville.
But when they started to move forward in their investigation, they realized that the stables had actually been converted for other purposes. When they finally raided the facilities, they discovered “a cryptocurrency farm” – a surprise because there is “virtually no trace” of such operations in Spain.
Energy costs are relatively high in Spain, and air conditioning prices are even higher. Summer temperatures can soar to around 38 degrees Celsius.
Officers discovered that the stables had been equipped with “modern facilities for mining cryptocurrencies”. Among these were 21 ASIC mining rigs “exclusively dedicated to bitcoin mining”. The equipment, according to the police, had been configured to receive power through an illegal connection – and operate the public grid for electricity.
According to the police, the value of the BTC gear is estimated at just under $35,000 and the operators of the “farm” reportedly earned around $2,745 per month in crypto.
Spanish Police Discover Bitcoin Mining Hardware During Police Raid
Even more crypto mining equipment – presumably altcoin mining rigs – were also discovered at the property and reportedly earned their owners nearly $1,100 a month.
Police said they also found “refrigeration systems” and “powerful” industrial fans on site. They were intended to expel the hot air generated by the platforms.
Outside the stables, they found an “illegal connection” to the local electricity grid. Engineers from the Santiponce electricity supplier said the connection was able to “harvest” electricity for worth $2,200 per month.
Officers who analyzed the material said they believed the farm was “at the start of its operations”. They claimed that the police had intervened before the “farm” became profitable.
At the end of last year, Spanish lawmakers have managed to add a number of cryptocurrency-related clauses to the country’s penal code.
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