Malaysian authorities have formed a joint task force using high-tech drones and police officers on the ground to search for and arrest nearly 14,000 illicit Bitcoin mining rigs, according to a Bloomberg report published Thursday.
Drones fly over buildings looking for heat signatures, while police on the ground scan areas with sensors that detect illicit electricity consumption. Neighbors often call to complain about strange noises, only for the police to find crypto mining rigs.
Utility company Tenaga Nasional (TNB) recently reported that illegal cryptocurrency miners have stolen $1.1 billion from the national network since 2020.
“The risk of allowing such activities is no longer that of theft,” said Akmal Nasrullah Mohd Nasir, deputy minister of energy transition and water transformation, who chairs the panel. “You can even destroy our facilities. This becomes a challenge for our system.”
That $1.1 billion is enough to fund the basic food needs of more than 567,000 people for a full year in Malaysia, according to U.S. Department of Agriculture figures that the average Malaysian consumer spent about $1,940 a year on food in 2023. Alternatively, that’s enough to provide electricity for a year to about 373,000 medium-sized households in the Asian country, according to estimates from University Utara Malaysia.
This is not the first time that Malaysian authorities have announced a crackdown. In May, the number of electricity thefts jumped 300% between 2018 and the end of 2024, leading to the shutdown of nearly 2,400 illegal bitcoin mining operations.
TNB did not immediately respond to CoinDesk’s request for comment.
