Russian Police Seize More Than 2,700 Crypto Mining Rigs in St. Petersburg Raid
Russian police say they’ve confiscated over 2,700 crypto mining rigs from a facility in St. Petersburg that went on-line in 2018.
The Russian media outlet RBC reported that the power operators used energy grid know-how to govern meter information.
2,700 Crypto Mining Rigs Confiscated
Irina Volk, a spokesperson for the Russian Interior Ministry, defined that “over seven years in the past,” three unnamed St. Petersburg residents “signed a contract to attach a business property to the ability grid.”
However, earlier this yr, vitality grid investigators started to suspect one thing was amiss with the property’s energy consumption.
They adopted up with a probe, which revealed a discrepancy between meter readings on the facility and precise utilization figures.
The Interior Ministry and police joined the investigation, finally raiding the power. Volk launched a video on the ministry’s Telegram channel, exhibiting officers conducting the raid.
The video exhibits officers forcing a person to the ground inside a constructing. Other officers then pressure open a locked transport container with a crowbar.
Inside, the container seems to be housing 1000’s of operational crypto mining rigs. Officers mentioned they discovered a number of of those containers on the website.
Fans and different cooling gear additionally seem like functioning contained in the container. Officers then pressure open the door to a different constructing, which additionally homes banks of tons of of rigs.
Officers Confiscate Transformers and Cooling Equipment
Volk mentioned ministry officers imagine that the suspects used superior electrical data to govern the meter.
The meter then supplied low readings to the ability supplier, permitting the suspects to pay for a tiny fraction of the ability that they had consumed.
The crypto mining “farm” operated unhindered between March 2018 and August 2025, the spokesperson confirmed.
Officers mentioned they confiscated all the mining rigs, in addition to 2 transformers and cooling gear.
Police remanded the trio in custody and charged them with inflicting “property injury by deception or abuse of belief.”
Illegal Russian Crypto Miners: Going Underground
Volk mentioned the ministry is constant its seek for potential accomplices. The ministry didn’t reveal how a lot electrical energy they imagine the suspects had stolen from the grid, nor its financial value or the kind of cash the trio mined.
However, unlawful crypto mining seems to be on the rise in Russia and Russia-controlled territories.
In mid-September, Russian police unearthed a small community of unlawful mining facilities in what Moscow calls the Donetsk People’s Republic.
Officials mentioned the facilities’ operators linked 25 rigs on to the grid, bypassing meters in the method.
The community’s operators brought on damages value 14 million rubles ($170,633), officers mentioned.
Illegal crypto mining is especially rife in conventional Russian Bitcoin mining hotspots just like the North Caucasus and Southern Siberia.
Last yr, energy suppliers in Dagestan introduced that they had discovered subterranean crypto mining centers, apparently built to avoid detection from energy officials.
Some unlawful miners have additionally begun utilizing cellular items housed in massive vans and vans to assist them relocate in the event that they study that vitality firms have grow to be conscious of their actions.
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