SEPANG: Police have crippled an illegal cryptocurrency mining operation with the arrests of three men and seizure of RM121,800 worth of equipment.
District police chief Assistant Commissioner Norhizam Bahaman said police, working with Tenaga Nasional Bhd, conducted a series of raids in Dengkil, Salak Tinggi and Putra Perdana yesterday following intelligence gathering and investigations.
"We raided five premises and seized 87 mining machines, two vehicles and other electronic equipment used in the operations.
"We also found that all these premises had illegally-connected electricity supply," he told reporters today.
Norhizam said they arrested three people aged between 30 and 45 believed to be the premises caretakers.
"Based on our investigations the syndicate had used 741,439.24kWh of electricity worth RM384,806.96.
"The syndicate was operating for at least four months before we detected their activities," he said, adding that the case was being investigated under Section 427 of the Penal Code for committing mischief and causing damage as well as Section 37 of the Electricity Supply Act 1990.
Meanwhile, Norhizam said police were looking for four suspects believed to be part of a telecommunications cable theft syndicate busted in December last year.
"In the case which occurred at Universiti Tenaga Nasional in Kajang, we managed to arrest and charge three suspects aged between 30 and 45.
"Based on our investigations, the suspects had multiple criminal and drug records," he said, adding that the suspects had opened 14 manholes within the Uniten campus and stole copper cables along a 2km stretch of road worth RM250,000.
He said the three suspects were charged under Section 379 of the Penal Code at the Sepang Court on Dec 27 and were sentenced to six months' jail.
"We have identified four others still at large believed to be remnant members of this group," he said.