Mexican drug cartels are increasingly embracing crypto mining: in the mountains of Puebla state, law enforcement discovered a hidden farm with hundreds of graphics processors, industrial energy equipment, and satellite communications.
Raid in the Mountains of Puebla
The operation took place in the city of Tlaola, in the mountainous Sierra Norte region. According to Reuters, the illegal crypto farm was set up near the Presa de Necaxa hydroelectric power plant and allegedly received electricity through an illegal connection to its grid.
At the site, about 300 graphics processors, energy infrastructure, and satellite equipment were found. During the raid, Mexican federal authorities, navy personnel, and state police seized 80 medium-voltage terminals, a transformer, and eight satellite antennas.
In scale, this site did not appear gigantic, but it became the fourth such farm found in the region since the beginning of 2025. Security analysts believe that such facilities show how quickly cartels are complicating their schemes and moving part of their operations into the digital sphere.
Why Cartels Need Crypto Mining
The connection between cartels and cryptocurrencies is no longer an exception. Chainalysis estimates the scale of illegal crypto transactions as follows:
- 2024: $59 billion.
- 2025: $154 billion.
The growth is partly attributed to sanctions evasion, but in South America, cryptocurrencies are increasingly seen as a tool for money laundering.
In such a scheme, a cartel gains several advantages at once:
- equipment can be hidden in remote areas;
- satellite communications reduce dependence on regular infrastructure;
- stolen electricity sharply reduces costs.
Organized crime uses this especially eagerly where territorial control allows connection to networks without much noise.
A drug cartel can build a mining site with relatively affordable equipment. Mass mining on consumer graphics processors dropped significantly in the second half of 2022, after which many video cards entered the secondary market. For illegal farms, this became an additional source of components.
Why Farms Are Hidden in Small Communities
Tlaola is a small settlement of about 20,000 residents. In such places, extra noise and a sharp increase in energy consumption are much more noticeable than in a big city. Two residents of neighboring settlements told Reuters that the hum from equipment, transformers, and cooling could be heard about a kilometer away, even though the nearest village was only two kilometers away.
The three other recently discovered crypto farms were also located near the same hydroelectric power plant. Remote areas attract illegal miners with cheap electricity and low public visibility, and in some zones, criminal groups provide additional protection. In Puebla state, the presence of the Jalisco New Generation Cartel and its armed wing La Barredora is most noticeable. The Sinaloa Cartel, the Zetas Cartel, Los Zetas, the Tijuana Cartel, the Juarez Cartel, and the Beltran Leyva Cartel also operate across the country; in different regions, they compete for routes, territories, and cash flows.
For Mexico, this story fits into a broader conversation about security. In it, alongside Puebla, Mexico City, Guadalajara, Tijuana, Jalisco, and Colima (state) often appear, as well as the legacy of the hardline policies of the Felipe Calderón era. Tijuana is often called one of the most criminal cities in the country due to the fight for border routes; Ciudad Juarez is also regularly mentioned in this context. Drug trafficking, cocaine, and cartel financial schemes have long gone beyond street crime reports and increasingly intersect with technology.
International comparisons mention South America, Venezuela, the United States of America, the Medellin cocaine cartel, and Pablo Escobar, although current schemes look different: instead of just cash and classic routes, there are crypto wallets, farms, and satellite communication channels. Such episodes quickly spread through the media and X (social network) because they show how the criminal economy is changing.
Why There Are So Many Cartels
The large number of cartels grew out of a combination of several factors: historical drug trafficking routes, poverty in certain regions, weak local control, and demand from a large neighboring market. Mexican groups strengthened as they took control of transit routes, production, supply security, and financial flows. When old structures fragmented, their former parts began to fight each other for cities, highways, ports, and illegal income.
This is how the cartel war works: groups fight for territories, supply channels, and influence over local authorities. Its consequences are violence, corruption, pressure on business, migration, and social instability.
How Cartels Are Organized and How They Are Fought
Internally, such organizations are usually built hierarchically: leadership makes decisions, armed units hold territories, logisticians are responsible for routes and warehouses, financiers handle settlements and laundering income, and local cells gather information and control enforcers.
Corruption in the police, army, courts, and municipal structures helps cartels learn about raids in advance, avoid punishment, and protect supply channels. The US responds with joint operations with Mexican law enforcement, increased border control, financial sanctions, and prosecution of networks linked to drug trafficking.
Crypto Crime Continues to Grow
According to the Mexican company SILIKN, the use of crypto mining to launder illegal proceeds in Mexico grew by at least 55.8% in 2025. Among the groups linked to such schemes are the Sinaloa Cartel and the Jalisco New Generation Cartel. The former is known as one of the most influential networks in the Mexican drug business and is linked to Joaquín Guzmán Loera, El Chapo; the latter has become one of the main competitors in the drug market and in controlling territories by force. They created farms for operations with Bitcoin (BTC), Monero (XMR), and Tether (USDT).
Illegal mining sites are found not only in Mexico. Raids against similar facilities have taken place in Brazil, the United States of America, and Thailand. Analysts expect that in the coming years, crimes related to cryptocurrencies will become larger and more complex.
