Daqing Oilfield cracked a rare "electricity theft" case, thousands of mining machines mined Bitcoin

Abstract: There is a particularly large factory building in the suburbs of Daqing City. The door is always closed and there is always a rumbling noise coming from inside. Although it is located in the wilderness, far away from residential areas, it happens to be located in the factory area of ​​an oil production plant. What is the strange roar? This attracted the attention of the factory security department.

The factory is noisy

The factory layout aroused police suspicion

The suspicious factory building is located in the Honglida Electric Repair Factory in Honggang District, Daqing City. The buzzing sound can be heard 50 meters away from the yard. The closer you get, the louder the sound. Looking through the gate, the factory area is divided into two sets of factory buildings, the south and the east. Each set of factory buildings makes a rumbling sound. There are nearly 10 huge fans installed on the outer wall one by one. There is no smoke in the factory building, and there are few people. It is definitely not what an electrical appliance repair shop should look like. After the security department of the local oil field management area inspected it, they reported it to the police and expressed their doubts.

Gao Youtie, Criminal Investigation Team 9 of the Oilfield Branch of the Daqing Public Security Bureau:

It generates a lot of heat during operation, and an electric fan is needed to exhaust the air. The machine itself is very noisy, so you can hear a very loud noise within about 50 meters outside. According to their previous patrol experience, if they hear such a loud noise, it should be the Bitcoin machine mining.

Bitcoin is an internationally popular virtual currency that is calculated by professional equipment. Mining refers to the process of calculating Bitcoin using computers. However, due to the special nature of the equipment, it is often associated with certain illegal or even criminal acts. So, is this factory really producing Bitcoin? Are there any illegal acts? The local police, along with the security department, went to the scene to check.

There are 1,000 machines in two factories, of different brands, neatly placed on shelves, running at high speed, which is called mining, and the noise is so loud that it is unbearable. Since production is allowed, there is nothing illegal to say, but this is not the purpose of the police investigation.

High electricity consumption

No huge electricity bills

Its electricity consumption is the focus of police attention. According to professionals, Bitcoin mining requires huge investment, the largest of which is the purchase of machinery and equipment, and the second is the high daily electricity bill. According to the night watchman, this factory has been in operation for more than a month.

The police did some calculations and found that one machine would consume more than 20 kWh of electricity for 24 hours a day. At 0.80 yuan per kWh, that's more than 20 yuan. So 1,000 machines would cost more than 20,000 yuan in electricity bills, and that's just for one day. Under normal circumstances, the electricity bill alone would cost nearly 500,000 yuan a month.

Each machine has its own distribution cabinet, which is then put together and extended out of the window to a high-voltage line box 30 meters away from the factory. The power supply is generally provided from there, and the power connection method is relatively formal. It is difficult to determine whether it is stealing electricity. The police sent the high-voltage metering box to a professional department for inspection. The result was that the lead seal was opened manually and tampered with in the high-voltage metering box. Based on this, the police determined that this was a complete act of stealing electricity. After the high-voltage metering box was removed by the police, someone came to the public security agency with a guilty conscience and said he wanted to turn himself in.

The person who came to surrender called himself Gao and produced a rental agreement signed by himself, the landlord Diao Yuliang and Diao Yuliang's son, but the police found suspicious points in it.

Wang Yanjun, Criminal Investigation Team 9, Oilfield Branch, Daqing Public Security Bureau:

Through investigation, we learned that this person had no communication or contact with the homeowner or the person who signed the agreement before the incident, so it can be concluded that it must be fake.

Police conduct multiple investigations

The suspect surfaced

The police retrieved the surveillance video installed in the factory. The surveillance video showed that in addition to the night watchman, the only two people who frequently entered the factory area were An and Bai, and these two people were friends or relatives of the owner Diao Yuliang. All kinds of evidence pointed to the owner Diao Yuliang. This alone is not enough. The power department only issued the power consumption. Since Bitcoin mining is a virtual behavior, the actual power consumption of each machine must also be calculated.

The calculation results showed that from December 2016 to the date of the crime, the factory used more than 3.88 million kWh of electricity, stealing more than 3.21 million yuan in electricity fees, while its person in charge only paid one or two thousand yuan in electricity fees each month. At this point in the investigation, the task force still did not take action, but continued to expand clues. In the factory, the investigators also found many express delivery documents.

The recipient of the express delivery documents pointed to Diao Yuliang. The various evidences collected by the police showed that the factory was headed by Diao Yuliang, and seven or eight relatives and friends worked for him and were listed as persons involved in the theft of electricity. At this time, Diao Yuliang fled after hearing the news, and the police listed him as an online fugitive. On October 23, Diao Yuliang sneaked back to his residence to visit his friends and was arrested by the police. The police also divided into several arrest teams to arrest other persons involved in the case one by one.

According to several suspects, Diao Yuliang also had a factory for producing Bitcoin. The police went to another site and removed a high-voltage metering box, and found that there were more than one means of stealing electricity. It is worth noting that the electricity stolen by the suspects was all used in the oil field. On August 14, the day of the investigation, the difference between the actual electricity bill incurred by the Honglida Electric Repair Factory and the normal electricity bill measured by the Fourth Oil Production Plant was as high as more than 2,400 yuan, causing significant losses in the oil field.

At present, five suspects involved in the case have been approved for arrest for theft. Due to the huge amount of electricity stolen, the main offender will face a relatively severe punishment. As we all know, electricity is a commodity, and the electricity from the oil field is used for national production and construction. If you rack your brains and use any means to steal electricity from the oil field, there is only one result, facing legal sanctions.

It’s the same old saying:

Don’t steal, or you will be caught!

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