A large police raid was conducted this evening in Skopje’s central GTC shopping mall, against a group that set up bitcoin mining rigs. According to early media reports, the group used an illegal link to the power supply in GTC to make the operation profitable.

The Infomax news site reported that the storage space where the rigs were plugged in was rented out by a company owned by the Bajram family – the sons of former member of Parliament and key Roma politician in Macedonia Amdi Bajram. Bajram’s party long had control over the GTC shopping mall.

But the Interior Ministry insisted that the electric connection was not conducted illegally and that the same warehouse was investigated in August as well. The Interior Ministry also notes that mining for bitcoin is not considered a crime, meaning that the operation will probably not be disrupted.