BATU PAHAT, Sept 13 — Police shut down two illegal cryptocurrency mining rigs involved in electricity theft from two shophouses on Jalan Budi Utara in Taman Wawasan here yesterday.
Batu Pahat police chief Assistant Commissioner Ismail Dollah said the joint raid was carried out by a police team from the district police headquarters with Tenaga Nasional Berhad (TNB) personnel at 11am.
“Based on an earlier inspection, TNB personnel detected electricity theft at the two premises where the suspects were operating bitcoin cryptocurrency mining activities.
“We confiscated 204 units of cryptocurrency mining antminer machines, 11 port switches, two monitors, two computer processing units (CPU) and two routers from the shophouses that were raided,” said Ismail in a statement today.
Ismail said no arrests were made during the joint operation.
He added that investigators are attempting to trace the individuals involved in the operation.
“Police have initiated investigations under Sections 379 and 427 of the Penal Code and Section 37(3) of the Electricity Supply Act 1997,” he said.
Since last year, there have been many reports of police carrying out cryptocurrency-related raids, such as on bitcoin mining operations, which has led to the seizure of thousands of ringgit in equipment.
In Malaysia, cryptocurrency mining operations are not considered illegal, but the premises are raided due to operators stealing electricity from TNB.
