Mexican federal authorities, the Navy and local police dismantled a clandestine cryptocurrency mining farm near Tlaola in Puebla, seizing 300 graphics cards, satellite internet links and industrial transformers. The equipment was illegally drawing hydroelectric power, and the facility was the fourth illicit mining site uncovered in the region since early last year. Security analysts say cartels including the Jalisco New Generation Cartel and the Sinaloa Cartel are using crypto mining (computing to validate transactions and earn digital assets) to convert and launder illicit proceeds. SILIKN estimates that crypto mining used for money laundering in Mexico increased at least 55.8% last year. Chainalysis, cited by Reuters, recorded $154 billion in illicit crypto transactions last year, up from $59 billion in 2024, partly because of sanctions evasion. The Puebla raid forms part of a wider regional response to unlicensed, energy-intensive mining, with similar facilities also targeted in Brazil, the United States and Thailand.