Tucked into the remote mountains of Tlaola, Puebla, a crypto mining operation was running on stolen electricity, satellite internet, and what investigators suspect is cartel money. Mexican authorities dismantled the site between September 8 and 12, hauling away 300 GPUs, transformers, 80 medium-voltage terminals, and eight satellite internet antennas.
The facility sat conveniently close to the Nuevo Necaxa hydroelectric dam. Not because the operators appreciated scenic views of infrastructure, but because proximity to a major power source made it easier to siphon electricity off the grid without anyone noticing.
A pattern emerges in Puebla
This wasn’t a one-off discovery. The Tlaola bust marks the fourth clandestine crypto mining operation uncovered in the Puebla region since early 2025.
Security analyst David Saucedo noted that operations like these require significant technical expertise and substantial funding. That kind of capital doesn’t typically come from small-time operators. It comes from well-resourced entities, and in Mexico’s current landscape, that increasingly means organized crime.
Investigators are probing potential links to major criminal organizations, including the Sinaloa Cartel and the Jalisco New Generation Cartel, known as CJNG. Both groups have been identified as increasingly adopting digital assets for their operations, moving beyond traditional cash-based money laundering toward methods that leverage the speed and pseudonymity of blockchain transactions.
The cartel crypto pivot
Crypto-related money laundering activities tied to organized crime reportedly surged 55.8% during 2025. The primary currencies of choice: Bitcoin, Monero, and Tether (USDT).
Each serves a different purpose in the laundering toolkit. Bitcoin provides liquidity and wide acceptance across exchanges. Monero offers privacy features that make transactions far harder to trace. Tether, as a stablecoin pegged to the US dollar, lets criminal organizations park value without exposure to crypto’s notorious price swings.
Mining adds another layer to this strategy. Instead of buying crypto on exchanges, where know-your-customer requirements create paper trails, cartels can generate freshly minted coins through mining. Those coins arrive with no transaction history.
The electricity theft component is critical to the economics. By tapping directly into the grid near a hydroelectric dam, the operators reduced their biggest operational cost to zero. The Mexican public, in effect, subsidized cartel crypto production through stolen electricity.