Hidden crypto farm in Mexican mountains puts spotlight on cartel funding

Daniel Becerril/Reuters

Nestled in the lush green mountains of Central Mexico, next to a sparsely traveled gravel road, few people had reason to wander close ​enough to hear the loud, mechanical whirring of a clandestine cryptocurrency farm.

What led police to the ramshackle building, suspected of mining virtual coins to ‌launder illicit funds, was not only the noise but the vast amount of electricity needed to power and cool hundreds of specialized computing units, at levels far surpassing the needs of the small communities scattered around the Sierra Norte region of Puebla state.

Crypto mining — which uses powerful computers to generate virtual assets such as bitcoin — represents a new frontier in Mexico’s fight against organized criminal groups, which have extended ​their reach beyond drug trafficking and extortion into the murkier realm of financial crime.

In Puebla, authorities discovered 300 graphics processing units (GPUs), 80 medium-voltage terminals and eight ​satellite antennae — all geared to compete against millions of other machines to solve puzzles and create valuable new crypto coins.

While a relatively ⁠modest operation by international commercial standards, it is the fourth such crypto farm uncovered in the area since early last year.

“Drug cartels appear to have reached a new ​level of sophistication,” said David Saucedo, a Mexico-based security analyst, adding that setting up such an operation would have required technical expertise and backing from a well-financed group, such as ​one of Mexico’s most powerful cartels.

Mexico’s federal attorney’s office declined to comment, citing an active investigation.

Globally, illicit cryptocurrency transactions more than doubled in 2025, with addresses linked to criminal activity receiving an estimated $154 billion, up from $59 billion a year earlier, according to blockchain analytics firm Chainalysis, which analyzed transaction volumes sent to illicit wallet addresses.

Chainalysis attributed much of the increase to a surge in ​transactions linked to sanctions evasion, including payments involving sanctioned governments.

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As more people and institutions worldwide adopt virtual currency, most within the confines of the law, Latin American cartels are ​among those increasingly using crypto transfers and mining operations to launder money, said Caio Motta, the firm’s Latin American specialist.

“These locations will have very cheap electricity, or be in an area under ‌the influence ⁠of organized crime so they’re able to steal electricity and establish a large infrastructure to mine cryptocurrency,” Motta said.

Electricity is the biggest cost for mining crypto, as energy prices have increased and the process of minting a single unit of virtual currency has become more resource-intensive.

The University of Cambridge’s Bitcoin Electricity Consumption Index estimates the cost of minting one bitcoin — the most widely used cryptocurrency — at nearly $45,000. This would still bring a substantial profit when sold at current prices of around $78,000.

“If they were stealing the electricity, the main costs ​of the operation would be, well — nothing,” said ​Samuel Leon, an expert in energy ⁠theft at Mexico’s Iberoamericana University, referring to the Puebla operation.

Mexican authorities said they are investigating whether the crypto farm was stealing electricity from a nearby hydroelectric dam.

The bushy forests and scattered communities of the Sierra Norte, where the Puebla crypto ​farm was found, made for an ideal hiding spot.

Two people living in neighboring communities, who requested anonymity for fear of reprisals, ​told Reuters that the ⁠whirring noise could be heard one kilometer (0.6 mile) away. The crypto farm was located approximately twice that distance from the nearest village.

Three other similar crypto farms were found last year in the vicinity of the nearby hydroelectric dam in northern Puebla. Local authorities said they are collaborating with nearby states to investigate the possibility of more hidden operations.

Similar raids have taken place ⁠in Brazil, the ​US and Southeast Asia, including a major bitcoin mining operation in Thailand that spanned five provinces.

According to ​Motta of Chainalysis, rising global cryptocurrency use will likely push crypto-related crime to new records in the years ahead, as virtual currencies become more accessible even as investigators improve their ability to trace online transactions.

“Law enforcement ​agencies are becoming far more equipped to fight organized crime using cryptocurrency,” he said.

丹尼尔·贝塞里尔/路透社

在墨西哥中部郁郁葱葱的群山之中，紧邻一条人迹罕至的碎石路，很少有人会走到足够近的地方，听到一个秘密加密货币农场发出的响亮的机械嗡嗡声。

警方之所以找到这栋破旧的建筑物（怀疑它挖虚拟货币以洗钱），不仅是因为噪音，还因为驱动和冷却数百台专用计算机单元所需的大量电力远远超过了普埃布拉州北部山区散布的小社区的需求。

加密货币挖矿——利用强大的计算机生成比特币等虚拟资产——代表了墨西哥打击有组织犯罪集团的新领域，这些犯罪集团已经将其触角从毒品走私和敲诈勒索扩展到更加阴暗的金融犯罪领域。

在普埃布拉，当局发现了 300 个图形处理单元 (GPU)、80 个中压终端和 8 个卫星天线——所有这些都是为了与数百万台其他机器竞争，以解决难题并创造有价值的新加密货币。

虽然按国际商业标准来看，这是一个规模相对较小的运营，但这却是自去年初以来在该地区发现的第四个此类加密货币农场。

“贩毒集团似乎已经达到了一个新的复杂水平，”墨西哥安全分析师大卫·索塞多表示，并补充说，建立这样的行动需要技术专长和资金雄厚的集团的支持，例如墨西哥最强大的贩毒集团之一。

墨西哥联邦检察官办公室以正在进行调查为由，拒绝置评。

据区块链分析公司 Chainalysis 分析了发送到非法钱包地址的交易量后发现，2025 年全球非法加密货币交易量增加了一倍多，与犯罪活动有关的地址预计将收到 1540 亿美元，高于前一年的 590 亿美元。

Chainalysis 将大部分增长归因于与规避制裁相关的交易激增，包括涉及受制裁政府的支付。

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该公司拉丁美洲专家卡约·莫塔表示，随着全球越来越多的人和机构采用虚拟货币（大多数都在法律范围内），拉丁美洲的贩毒集团也越来越多地利用加密货币转账和挖矿业务来洗钱。

莫塔说：“这些地方的电力价格非常便宜，或者位于有组织犯罪的影响范围内，所以他们能够窃取电力并建立大型基础设施来挖掘加密货币。”

电力是加密货币挖矿的最大成本，因为能源价格上涨，铸造一单位虚拟货币的过程变得更加耗费资源。

剑桥大学的比特币电力消耗指数估计，铸造一枚比特币（使用最广泛的加密货币）的成本接近 45,000 美元。即使以目前约 78,000 美元的价格出售，也能带来可观的利润。

“如果他们窃取的是电力，那么行动的主要成本将是——零，”墨西哥伊比利亚美洲大学的能源盗窃专家塞缪尔·莱昂在谈到普埃布拉的行动时说道。

墨西哥当局表示，他们正在调查该加密货币农场是否从附近的水电站窃取电力。

在普埃布拉加密货币农场被发现的北塞拉山脉，茂密的森林和零星的社区为它提供了一个理想的藏身之处。

两名居住在附近社区、因担心遭到报复而要求匿名的居民告诉路透社，一公里（0.6英里）外都能听到嗡嗡声。这家加密货币农场距离最近的村庄大约是这个距离的两倍。

去年，在普埃布拉北部附近的水电站附近还发现了另外三个类似的加密货币挖矿窝点。当地政府表示，他们正与邻近州合作，调查是否存在更多类似的隐蔽挖矿活动。

类似的突袭行动也发生在巴西、美国和东南亚，其中包括在泰国查获的一起跨越五个省份的大型比特币挖矿行动。

Chainalysis 的 Motta 表示，随着全球加密货币使用量的增加，未来几年与加密货币相关的犯罪可能会创下新纪录，因为虚拟货币变得更加容易获取，即使调查人员提高了追踪在线交易的能力。

他说：“执法机构越来越有能力打击利用加密货币的有组织犯罪。”