Thirty eight smuggled crypto mining rigs worth 5.8 billion tomans seized in Ardabil

Brigadier General Javad Taghavi, police commander of Iran's Ardabil province, said on Wednesday 5 August 2026 that officers from the province's economic security police had seized 38 smuggled cryptocurrency mining rigs as part of a nationwide operation against smuggled miners and unauthorised mining farms and premises.

He said the operation was carried out with police units and 15 teams from the electricity authority, and involved 125 inspections. Experts valued the seizures at 5.8 billion rials, equivalent to 5.8 billion tomans.

Two premises were sealed, two people were arrested and two cases were opened for legal proceedings. Cryptocurrency mining using subsidised electricity and smuggled imported rigs has for years been a pressure point on Iran's power grid, and sweeps against unauthorised farms are run periodically across the country, particularly during the peak consumption months of summer.