Illegal “Cannabis Farm” In Britain? No, Just A Bitcoin Mining Farm

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Last Updated on 30 May 2021 by CryptoTips.eu

Jeroen Kok

Jeroen is one of the lead copywriters on Cryptotips.eu and discusses all recent events in the crypto market. This includes news updates, but also price analyzes and more. He developed his passion for cryptocurrency during the bull run in 2017. He has learned a lot since then. The combination of cryptocurrency and creative writing is perfect for Jeroen and an excellent way to share his knowledge with a wide audience. Find me on LinkedIn / jeroen@cryptotips.eu
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Did you ever see that classic picture of a whole bunch of roofs covered with snow and then one of those with no snow whatsoever. That’s because the last one was housing a cannabis farm, which needs ventilation, wiring, lamps and is causing a lot of heat. In recent years, whenever police wanted to check whether anyone in the town, city or village was illegally growing cannabis plants, they would fly a drone over the roofs and check.

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Extensive ventilation and wiring

And thus, when Birmingham police were notified by suspicious neighbors that a new tenant in their street was receiving multiple people who were spotted going in and out of the building, they checked it out. After seeing extensive ventilation and wiring, the security forces sent in a drone which indeed detected high amounts of heat coming off the building.

Upon entering the address however, they didn’t find a single cannabis plant. Instead, they spotted a hundred or so Antminer S9 machines, which were minting Bitcoin. The enormous amount of heat that they generated combined with the wiring had put police on the wrong path.

It’s certainly not what we were expecting.

It had all the hallmarks of a cannabis cultivation set-up and I believe it’s only the second such crypto mine we’ve encountered in the West Midlands.

Jennifer Griffin, Sandwell police sergeant, remarked.

Normally such a Bitcoin mining farm is not illegal, but this particular one was siphoning electricity from it’s neighbors, so police did close down the operation and is looking for the owners to present them with a hefty fine.

Sergeant Griffin continued:

My understanding is that mining for cryptocurrency is not itself illegal but clearly abstracting electricity from the mains supply to power it is. We’ve seized the equipment and will be looking into permanently seizing it under the Proceeds of Crime Act. No-one was at the unit at the time of the warrant and no arrests have been made – but we’ll be making enquiries with the unit’s owner.