- Electric power theft is a criminal offense and carries up to five years in prison
- Indonesian police also found 1,314 mining rigs at the raided sites in North Sumatra
Indonesian law enforcement raided a dozen sites suspected of mining Bitcoin with electric power stolen from the national grid around Christmas, CoinDesk reported, citing a local news source. Albeit being a dynamically developing crypto market and adopter, Indonesia has never ranked among the top Bitcoin mining destinations.
According to Indonesian law, electric power theft is a criminal offense and carries up to five years in prison. Alternatively, one must pay a fine of as much as twice the cost of the power stolen.
In Malaysia, multiple persons have been arrested for stealing electric power to mine crypto, but this had never happened in neighboring Indonesia before.
Indonesian police arrested two dozen individuals at the raided sites in Medan, North Sumatra, where they also found 1,314 mining rigs.
Power was stolen from electricity poles
The detained persons allegedly stole electric power by tapping into the poles of state-owned electricity company PLN over the past several months. The power stolen cost the equivalent of $100,000 in Indonesian rupees. At local prices, this amounts to around 10 million kilowatt hours and is equal to the annual electric power consumption of around 7,500 people in Indonesia.
A representative of PLN told a local media source that the company would cooperate with police on similar cases.
Bitcoin mining by country
European Union countries collectively account for only 6% of the global Bitcoin mining hashrate, a Bankless Times report found. The United States emerged as the undisputed leader with a commanding 38%, followed by a diverse array of countries, including China (21%), Kazakhstan (13%), Canada (7%), Russia (5%), Germany (3%), Malaysia (3%), and Ireland (2%).
Russia remains in the top ten of crypto mining destinations. In fact, Russians mining cryptocurrencies at their properties were responsible for power outages experienced in Irkutsk. The problems with electricity supply in the region have become frequent. This region maintains the lowest power rates in Russia.
