Georgia’s Interior Ministry said on June 15 that officers had seized 76 more crypto mining devices during searches in Mestia, a mountain town in the Samegrelo-Zemo Svaneti region. The latest haul brings the total confiscated under an active criminal probe to 330 units, the ministry said.
The investigation is being conducted under Article 229, Part 2, Subparagraph “b” of Georgia’s Criminal Code, a statute on energy resource use violations that carries a maximum penalty of up to three years in prison. The new seizures come as Vice Prime Minister Mamuka Mdinaradze pushes a metering campaign in the area, citing a consumption gap he says forces every Georgian electricity subscriber to pay an extra GEL 1.5 per month.
Mestia Seizure Brings the Active Probe to 330 Devices
The Samegrelo-Zemo Svaneti Police Department carried out the searches that produced the 76 new devices, the Ministry of Internal Affairs (MIA) said in a statement reported by Georgia’s public broadcaster 1TV and Interpressnews. The devices were confiscated as evidence in the investigation into alleged violations of the rules governing the use of energy resources. The MIA’s statement frames the activity as systematic, with locals said to have been “generating digital currency and obtaining illegal income by unlawfully consuming large amounts of electricity.”
The latest operation follows a June 4 sweep that recovered 148 mining devices from six locations in Mestia, and a June 11 follow-up that took another 42 units, according to the ministry’s earlier statements. The MIA’s running total of 330 devices now includes the new batch alongside the earlier hauls. Officers from the Samegrelo-Zemo Svaneti Police Department are continuing investigative activities to identify other individuals involved in the alleged scheme, the ministry said. The pace of seizures has tracked the rollout of the metering plan Mdinaradze unveiled on June 1.
- June 4: 148 devices seized in Mestia
- June 11: 42 devices seized in Mestia
- June 15: latest MIA operation in Mestia
Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze publicly backed the crackdown on June 4, saying the consumption gap in Mestia burdens every citizen and must be fixed, per 1TV. The earlier Mestia crypto raids had reached 195 devices by the time of the prior reporting on this site; the MIA’s running count has since climbed past that figure. The investigation remains open, with the MIA yet to file formal charges or name the individuals under active investigation.
Article 229 Caps the Sentence at Three Years
The MIA is pursuing the case under Article 229, Part 2, Subparagraph “b” of Georgia’s Criminal Code, the energy resource use violation statute. The provision carries a maximum penalty of up to three years in prison for those convicted. The same statute was cited in the earlier 148-device raid on June 4 and the 42-device operation on June 11. Under the article, the criminal liability attaches to the unauthorized consumption of electricity, not to cryptocurrency mining as a category.
The MIA’s June 15 statement describes the activity as systematic and organised, with locals said to have been “generating digital currency and obtaining illegal income by unlawfully consuming large amounts of electricity.” Officers from the Samegrelo-Zemo Svaneti Police Department are continuing to identify other individuals and take “appropriate legal measures,” the ministry said. The 1TV report links the new seizure to the same Justice/Crime track that has covered the earlier hauls. The MIA has not yet announced when formal charges will be filed. How many individuals remain under active investigation is also not yet public.
How a Long-Running Subsidy Built Svaneti’s Mining Boom
Svaneti’s mining boom is the product of a highland support policy the Georgian government put in place to keep remote mountain communities in residence through harsh winters, when the region had no natural gas network and electricity was the only source of heating. Under that policy, Upper Svaneti residents are exempt from electricity bills, while residents of other high-mountain areas receive a 50% tariff discount. The policy was designed for an isolated rural population, and it created the conditions that crypto miners later exploited.
The local grid operator Energo-Pro Georgia told the Institute for War and Peace Reporting in late 2021 that Svaneti’s total electricity use had risen from 37.2 million kilowatt-hours in 2012 to 101.5 million kilowatt-hours in 2021. The provider warned at the time that “no network can handle the amount of electricity that is generated in Mestia” and called for meter installation to track consumption. By 2019, Energo-Pro and law enforcement had carried out house-to-house disconnections. Those raids confiscated mining equipment worth about five million laris, or roughly 1.6 million dollars at the time.
The 2021 disconnections gave only temporary relief, and operators returned as cryptocurrency prices recovered. In December 2021, around 200 Mestia residents gathered in a 12th-century St George church and swore on the saint’s icon that they would never mine virtual currencies, in one of the more unusual enforcement efforts in the region’s history. The oath did not slow the hardware being plugged in elsewhere. The earlier rounds of seizures were followed by renewed growth. By 2025, Mestia’s annual consumption reached 133 million kilowatt-hours, more than 13 times the roughly 10 million kilowatt-hours typical of comparable municipalities, per Vice Prime Minister Mdinaradze.
Bitfury, a Bitcoin mining company, opened a 20-megawatt facility in the city of Gori in 2014, making Georgia one of the early hubs for industrial Bitcoin mining. The country’s hydropower resources, low electricity costs, and VAT exemptions on some crypto-related activities have attracted legal and illegal operators in roughly equal measure. The mining that took root in Svaneti used the same cheap hydroelectric supply but cut the cost side out entirely. A separate account of Svaneti’s 2021 community response to crypto mining documents how the oath tradition emerged in the first place.
Every Georgian Electricity Subscriber Pays the Cost
The damage from the consumption gap in Mestia is not absorbed by Svaneti alone. At his June 1 briefing, the vice prime minister put a number on the annual cost to Georgia’s energy system and a smaller number on what each subscriber pays. The damage flows to all consumers through their regulated electricity bills, a mechanism the vice prime minister described in direct terms.
The vice prime minister’s estimate is that each subscriber in the country pays an extra amount on every electricity payment because of the problem. That surcharge moves through the rate calculations set by the national energy regulator. Upper Svaneti is the only region in Georgia where the government has historically covered 100% of residents’ electricity costs, while other high-mountain areas receive a 50% tariff discount. The figure on each subscriber’s bill is GEL 1.5.
The surcharge reflects a structural subsidy, not a discretionary fee: Upper Svaneti’s free electricity is funded by spreading the cost across the national tariff. The metering plan the vice prime minister unveiled is designed to interrupt that flow by catching unauthorized consumption at the source. The MIA’s seizures, in turn, are designed to make the new metering regime credible by attaching criminal penalties to the behavior the meters detect. The criminal enforcement and the infrastructure rollout are now running in parallel in Svaneti. Each is meant to reinforce the other: meters make the crime visible, and the criminal cases make the meter rollout enforceable.
- GEL 20 to 25 million: annual damage to Georgia’s energy system (per Mdinaradze)
- GEL 1.5: extra cost per Georgian electricity subscriber per month (per Mdinaradze)
- 133 million kWh: Mestia’s 2025 electricity consumption (per Mdinaradze)
- 13x: the multiple vs comparable municipalities (per Mdinaradze)
Meters and the Enforcement Plan Mdinaradze Unveiled
The vice prime minister’s June 1 briefing set out the infrastructure side of the campaign, with the metering rollout covering all villages and settlements in the Mestia municipality. The plan calls for installing meters at both the household level and across each village, with the goal of “identifying the exact sources of the problem more effectively,” as the vice prime minister put it. The metering work is being carried out by the regional electricity distributor, with the full scope of the metering plan for Svaneti detailed in prior coverage on this site.
The new tariff structure preserves free electricity for normal household use. Residents keep the subsidy within an established consumption limit, and only usage above that threshold triggers the regulated tariff. Operators running mining hardware on the public grid without payment face a different calculation once meters are installed, since the meters make unpaid consumption visible to the distributor. The vice prime minister framed the legal stakes of the rollout in direct terms.
We call on everyone to respect this process. Any obstruction and violation of the law will be followed by strict legal action.
That warning came at the vice prime minister’s June 1 briefing and has now been followed by the MIA’s June 15 seizure, the third police operation in Mestia in eleven days. The MIA’s investigation remains open.
The MIA’s June 15 statement does not name any individuals. It also does not announce a filing timeline.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is Article 229, Part 2, Subparagraph “b” of Georgia’s Criminal Code?
It is the statute on energy resource use violations. The provision applies to the Mestia investigation and carries imprisonment for up to three years, according to the Ministry of Internal Affairs.
Why does Mestia have free electricity?
The Georgian government has fully subsidized electricity bills for Upper Svaneti residents under a long-running highland support policy. Other high-mountain areas in Georgia receive a 50% tariff discount, not a full subsidy. The policy was designed to keep remote mountain communities in residence through harsh winters.
How much electricity does illegal crypto mining consume in Mestia?
Mdinaradze said Mestia consumed 133 million kilowatt-hours in 2025, more than 13 times the roughly 10 million kilowatt-hours typical of comparable Georgian municipalities. The government estimates the annual damage to the energy system at GEL 20 to 25 million.
What is the penalty for illegal crypto mining in Georgia?
The offense carries imprisonment for up to three years. The investigation is ongoing, with the MIA continuing to identify other individuals involved in the alleged scheme. No defendants have been publicly named as of the MIA’s June 15 statement.
What is the government’s enforcement plan?
The government is installing electricity meters across villages and settlements in the Mestia municipality. Mdinaradze has warned that “any obstruction and violation of the law will be followed by strict legal action.”
