They got caught because it was too loud

Mexican federal prosecutors, the navy and state police raided a crypto mining farm on September 6 in Tlaola, Puebla, up in the Sierra Norte mountains about two kilometers from the nearest village.

They hauled out 300 graphics cards, a transformer, roughly 80 medium voltage terminals and eight satellite internet antennas. Investigators believe the power was being tapped straight off the grid at Presa de Necaxa, a hydroelectric dam nearby.

Before I get to the gist of everything. I think this was very impressive. Somebody scouted a spot in the mountains, hauled industrial electrical gear up there, wired into a dam, mounted eight satellite dishes on a hillside because there is no internet for miles, and ran the whole thing far enough from anybody to go unnoticed. Whatever funded it, that took real planning and people who knew what they were doing. Then it got found because it was loud. The whirring carried a full kilometer and the neighbors heard it. Which sucks if you ask me..

I will go further than most people would. I think it is funny. Somebody looked at a mountain, a dam and a pile of graphics cards and built an entire business up there, and what finally undid them was noise. This is a cartel. That is not a rumor hanging off the story, it is the story, and Mexican cartels found a way to run an operations and profit / transact millions, even billions.

Source: Bitbo.io