Mexican police have dismantled a hidden cryptocurrency mining operation hidden in the mountains of Puebla state that investigators suspect was being used by drug cartels to launder illicit money.
The site was tucked into the green mountains of central Mexico beside a remote dirt road, in the Sierra Norte region of Puebla. Officers were drawn to the location not only by the loud, mechanical hum of the equipment but by the enormous amount of electricity the site was drawing to power and cool hundreds of specialized computing units, far beyond what the small, scattered communities of the Sierra Norte would normally need.
What police found at the site
Cryptocurrency mining uses powerful computers to solve complex calculations that generate digital assets such as bitcoin. Authorities in Puebla found 300 graphics processing units, 80 medium-voltage terminals and eight satellite antennas at the abandoned building, all set up to compete with millions of other machines worldwide for new coins.
Mexico's federal Attorney General's Office declined to comment, citing the ongoing investigation.
Fourth farm found in the region
Although it is a relatively small operation by international commercial standards, it is the fourth such crypto mining farm uncovered in the area since the start of last year, according to authorities. Three other similar operations were found last year near a hydroelectric dam in northern Puebla.
David Saucedo, a Mexico-based security analyst, said drug cartels appeared to have reached a new level of sophistication. He said organizing such an operation would require technical expertise and backing from a well-funded group, such as one of Mexico's most powerful cartels.
Cryptocurrency mining marks a new front in Mexico's fight against organized crime, which has expanded beyond drug trafficking and extortion into the murkier world of financial crime.
Global surge in illicit crypto transactions
Illicit cryptocurrency transactions more than doubled worldwide in 2025, with addresses linked to criminal activity receiving roughly $154 billion, up from $59 billion the previous year, according to blockchain analysis firm Chainalysis, which examined the volume of transactions sent to illicit wallet addresses.
Chainalysis attributed much of the increase to a surge in transactions linked to sanctions evasion, including payments involving governments under sanctions.
As more people and organizations worldwide adopt virtual currencies, most of them within 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 America specialist.
He said these regions often have very cheap electricity or fall under the influence of organized crime, allowing groups to steal power and build large infrastructure for crypto mining.
Stolen electricity suspected
Electricity is the largest cost in cryptocurrency mining, as energy prices have risen and the process of creating a single unit of virtual currency has become more resource-intensive. The Cambridge Bitcoin Electricity Consumption Index estimates the cost of producing one bitcoin, the most widely used cryptocurrency, at nearly $45,000. That would still leave a significant profit if sold at current prices of around $78,000.
Samuel Leon, an energy theft specialist at Mexico's Universidad Iberoamericana, said that if the Puebla operation was stealing its electricity, the main cost of running it would have been effectively zero.
Mexican authorities said they are investigating whether the crypto farm was stealing power from a nearby hydroelectric dam.
The dense forests and scattered communities of the Sierra Norte, where the Puebla crypto farm was located, made it an ideal hiding place. Two people living in nearby communities, who asked not to be identified for fear of reprisals, said the whirring noise from the site could be heard from a kilometer (0.6 miles) away. The farm itself was located roughly twice that distance from the nearest village.
What happens next
Local authorities said they are working with neighboring states to investigate whether more hidden mining operations exist in the area. Similar raids have taken place in Brazil, the United States and Southeast Asia, including a large bitcoin mining operation in Thailand that spanned five provinces.
Motta said growing global use of cryptocurrency will likely push crypto-related crime to new records in the coming years as virtual currencies become more accessible, even as investigators improve their ability to detect online transactions. He said law enforcement agencies now have far better tools to combat organized crime that uses cryptocurrencies.
