British police looking for cannabis farm uncover bitcoin ‘mine’ instead

Instead of a drug-growing operation, officers found around 100 computer units used for ‘mining’ the cryptocurrency with stolen electricity

The warrant was one of almost 50 executed as part of a crackdown on drugs gangs, which led to 84 arrests, drug seizures and the recovery of weapons

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Some of the units uncovered at the suspected bitcoin 'mine' found by British police in the West Midlands region of England. Photo: Twitter

dpain London

Published: 3:35pm, 29 May 2021Updated: 7:43pm, 29 May 2021

A cryptocurrency “mine” which was stealing electricity worth thousands of pounds has been uncovered in Britain.

Police in the West Midlands region of England said they executed a drugs warrant at an industrial estate in Sandwell, near Birmingham, on May 18 after receiving intelligence that the site was being used as a cannabis farm.

But officers instead found a huge bank of around 100 computer units as part of what is understood to be a bitcoin mining operation.

The IT equipment was seized from the building in the Great Bridge Industrial Estate and inquiries with Western Power revealed the electric supply had been bypassed.

Cryptocurrencies are a digital currencies which have transactional records stored and secured through cryptography processes, meaning they are virtually impossible to counterfeit.

Bitcoin mining is the process by which new bitcoin are created and entered into circulation, done by computers solving complicated puzzles, which takes huge amounts of power.