Jiangsu police cracked a major case of stealing electricity to mine Bitcoin

Xinhua News Agency, Nanjing, July 12 (Reporter He Leijing) The reporter learned from the Public Security Bureau of Zhenjiang City, Jiangsu Province on the 12th that the Zhenjiang police successfully cracked a major electricity theft case in which nearly 4,000 "mining" devices were used to steal electricity in order to obtain Bitcoin. The case value was nearly 20 million yuan.

It is understood that Bitcoin is a virtual encrypted digital currency in the form of peer-to-peer transactions. It can be obtained through "mining" on the Internet and its value can be obtained in transactions.

Zhenjiang police said that in March this year, the Zhenjiang Power Supply Company reported to the public security organs that since 2018, some users in Zhenjiang New District and Dantu Xinfeng, Gaoqiao, Guyang, Jiangxin and other places were found to have used a large amount of electricity, but the electricity meter counts showed very little, and no abnormalities were found after multiple inspections. It was suspected that there were major illegal acts of electricity theft in these areas.

After receiving the report, the Criminal Police Brigade of the Zhenjiang Public Security Bureau and the Dantu Public Security Bureau set up a special task force to investigate abandoned and old factories with high-power transformers and far away from residential areas in key areas with abnormal electricity. After nearly two months of investigation, the police basically grasped the fact that the criminal gang with Lan and others as the main members rented 9 factories in Zhenjiang New District and Dantu Xinfeng, Guyang and other places, installed "mining" equipment in batches, hired dozens of people from Jiangsu and Zhejiang, and committed crimes of stealing national electricity.

On May 20, the Zhenjiang police organized more than 100 police officers and divided them into several arrest teams to carry out arrest operations at the same time, arresting 22 people involved in the case on the spot. After further interrogation and investigation, a total of 12 locations with nearly 4,000 "mining" equipment and related electricity theft facilities were seized.

"Each mining device consumes 25 to 50 kWh of industrial electricity per day, depending on the model." A person in charge of the Zhenjiang Power Supply Company said that thousands of mining devices run 24 hours a day, and the power consumption is very alarming. After on-site inspection by the Zhenjiang Quality Supervision Department and the power supply company, the gang stole electricity worth nearly 20 million yuan.

According to the criminal suspect Lan, he invested in 10 mining equipment in Yunnan in 2017 and made a lot of money. Later, he went to Zhenjiang to continue installing mining equipment to obtain Bitcoin, and used electricity theft devices to steal electricity in order to reduce electricity costs.

At present, more than 20 suspects of illegal crimes have been taken criminal coercive measures according to law, and the case is still under further investigation.