Two cryptocurrency farms were found in less than two months in Tlaola in the Sierra Norte de Puebla, with the most recent find coming during a raid on 5 November.[1] The raided property was identified as La Gallera, where officers detained one man who had a bag of presumed marijuana and a cell phone.[1] The search was carried out by the Secretariat of Security and Citizen Protection, the Attorney General’s Office, the Mexican Army and the National Guard.[1]
Officers also seized 50 mining boxes, 1,031 cryptoassets, a high-speed modem, an industrial three-phase transformer, two phone chips and a video screen.[1] The operation was part of simultaneous actions in Chihuahua, Sinaloa, Puebla and Veracruz, whose financial impact the Security Cabinet estimated at 4,132 million pesos.[1] The site lies about 4.3 km from El Beneficio, another property raided in September where about 300 specialized computers, a transformer, about 80 medium-voltage terminals and eight satellite antennas were seized.[1]
Authorities investigated the possible irregular use of electricity and the origin of the funds used to run the installation.[1] Cryptocurrency mining itself is not prohibited in Mexico but can lead to criminal investigation when clandestine electricity connections are used or funds are linked to money laundering.[1] Available information does not establish that both sites had the same operators or belonged to a single criminal structure.[1]
