Power Company Tip Leads to Bitcoin Mining Raid

[TheButterZone]

Growing marijuana is a victimless crime, car theft is not.

Growing marijuana is illegal (there). Speeding is illegal.
None of the above is creating victims till something goes wrong.

The only way for growing marijuana to go wrong (to have victims) is for it to have civil rights violations inflicted upon the grower, their baby, and/or their non-aggressive dog.

[Beliathon]

http://billmoyers.com/2013/12/16/land-of-the-free-us-has-5-of-the-worlds-population-and-25-of-its-prisoners/

Yep, and 80% of them are black. It's Jim Crow 2.0

We can end the war on drugs with compassion.

[wasserman99]

I'd be so pissed if they broke into my house with loaded weapons simply because the electric company gave them a "tip".    Those rat bastards got their money for the bill but then ratted him out.  It isn't their job to report electricity use to the police, their not cops, that guy should be suing them and the cops.  Cops are to lazy to do any kind of investigation and just kick in doors from miscellaneous tips.  What did they find computers and some weed, tax dollars well spent I'd say.

You need to remember the police did not simply break into the person's house. They came with a warrant. There is a huge difference between the two. A search warrant is given by a neutral judge who can see that there is probable cause that a crime has been committed.

I know all to well how a raid works, no need to explain.  I may have jumped the gun a little bit(pun intended).  My issue is police many times have raided a persons home that has done no crime based on a bad tip.  People have gotten killed because of the poorly planned raids.  For me that is a problem I don't know why people can accept that kind of action,  What would everyone say if they guy got shot dead?  You need to put yourself in the position of the cops and the miner.  The cops could have easily spent time watching the house for obvious activity of marijuana growing but they didn't.

In order for the police to be able to present information from a "tip" the person giving the tip needs to be known to the police (they need to know their identity) and the person needs to be credible.

I am not 100% sure what exactly would be visible from the street when someone is growing drugs from inside a house, but I would think it would be very little if anything at all. I would think that the drug growers could easily do everything they needed to do behind closed doors, and just because they are growing drugs at the house does not mean they would be selling drugs out of the house.

The judge also disagreed that the police should have watched for more evidence as he signed the search warrant. 

[niothor]

I'd be so pissed if they broke into my house with loaded weapons simply because the electric company gave them a "tip".    Those rat bastards got their money for the bill but then ratted him out.  It isn't their job to report electricity use to the police, their not cops, that guy should be suing them and the cops.  Cops are to lazy to do any kind of investigation and just kick in doors from miscellaneous tips.  What did they find computers and some weed, tax dollars well spent I'd say.

You need to remember the police did not simply break into the person's house. They came with a warrant. There is a huge difference between the two. A search warrant is given by a neutral judge who can see that there is probable cause that a crime has been committed.

I know all to well how a raid works, no need to explain.  I may have jumped the gun a little bit(pun intended).  My issue is police many times have raided a persons home that has done no crime based on a bad tip.  People have gotten killed because of the poorly planned raids.  For me that is a problem I don't know why people can accept that kind of action,  What would everyone say if they guy got shot dead?  You need to put yourself in the position of the cops and the miner.  The cops could have easily spent time watching the house for obvious activity of marijuana growing but they didn't.

In order for the police to be able to present information from a "tip" the person giving the tip needs to be known to the police (they need to know their identity) and the person needs to be credible.

I am not 100% sure what exactly would be visible from the street when someone is growing drugs from inside a house, but I would think it would be very little if anything at all. I would think that the drug growers could easily do everything they needed to do behind closed doors, and just because they are growing drugs at the house does not mean they would be selling drugs out of the house.

The judge also disagreed that the police should have watched for more evidence as he signed the search warrant. 

Use one of those :

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2461412/Police-helicopter-s-thermal-imaging-camera-detected-home-cannabis-factory-heat-coming-lamps-grow-drugs-look-like-flat-GLOWING.html

[BBmmBB]

Again, if anyone will simply Google this guy and/or read the previous link I posted you will see his house was raided because he was using eight times the normal upper limits of residence that size *** AND *** had previous convictions for operating a grow house.

The BTC mining equipment was incidental and *** WAS NOT *** the reason his house was raided as so many who are not reading the whole thread seem to think.

Actually this guy deserves a lot of crap because the last thing Bitcoin needs is an association between illegal drug cultivation and bitcoin. Also again, it doesn't matter what your personal opinions are about MJ, it is still very much illegal in Virginia.

This guy knowingly committed a felony and paid the price.

I don't have an issue with the raid.


~BCX~

~ this is clearly the end of safe bitcoin mining !!! VIVA THE REVOLUTION !!! BWAAAHAHAHAHA  

[QuestionAuthority]

I wish they'd lock all those mariwane druggies up and throw away the keys. I don't know why they can't just drink whiskey like the rest of us. Whiskey never causes all the problems those druggie perverts have. I don't know why they didn't just shoot em' while they had the chance! They brought enough guns to solve the problem. Shoot their friggin kids too. They'll just grow up to live on welfare and take drugs anyway. Now the rest of us GOD fearin', church goin' folks are gonna have to pay to keep that worthless pervert locked up. They should just ship em' all to the state o' Mariurado so we don't have to pay for em'.


This sounds like a joke but I know people that think this way. One of them is a true drunken wife beater that is actually brave enough to show up at church on Sunday morning escorting a wife with a black eye.

[giveBTCpls]

Well you haven't seen shit. Now you are at risk even if you try to buy some BTC physically off LocalBitcoins:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pYM9denOmSk

Imagine you try to buy some BTC and then the police kills you from a heart attack. Just lol.

[Kprawn]

Well, the marijuana farms can easily hide their operation, by faking a BTC mining operation.

What do they say... If there is smoke, there might be a fire.

A while back, it was more profitable to mine BTC than to grow marijuana. 

[QuestionAuthority]

I wish they'd lock all those mariwane druggies up and throw away the keys. I don't know why they can't just drink whiskey like the rest of us. Whiskey never causes all the problems those druggie perverts have. I don't know why they didn't just shoot em' while they had the chance! They brought enough guns to solve the problem. Shoot their friggin kids too. They'll just grow up to live on welfare and take drugs anyway. Now the rest of us GOD fearin', church goin' folks are gonna have to pay to keep that worthless pervert locked up. They should just ship em' all to the state o' Mariurado so we don't have to pay for em'.


This sounds like a joke but I know people that think this way. One of them is a true drunken wife beater that is actually brave enough to show up at church on Sunday morning escorting a wife with a black eye.

I feel that way for crimes against children, violent crimes, or crimes committed with weapons of any kind if stated in an intelligent manner minus the "Skydaddy" addition.

Back on topic, you don't get much dumber than having been previously been busted for a grow operation knowing damn well your heat signature from an airborne thermal cam can be seen from 3000 meters as well as you electricity usage screaming you're at it again, even if it is something benign. Even dumber was having MJ present under those circumstances period.

This guy was stupid.

Stupidity cost him.


~BCX~

I think raiding the house with a large armed tactical squad wielding assault rifles may be over doing it a bit. That looks like the ground troops that were used on the raid of Osama bin Laden's compound. If they were afraid to knock on the door they should have just used a Pyros small tactical munition fired from a sentinel drone.

[Window2Wall]

I wish they'd lock all those mariwane druggies up and throw away the keys. I don't know why they can't just drink whiskey like the rest of us. Whiskey never causes all the problems those druggie perverts have. I don't know why they didn't just shoot em' while they had the chance! They brought enough guns to solve the problem. Shoot their friggin kids too. They'll just grow up to live on welfare and take drugs anyway. Now the rest of us GOD fearin', church goin' folks are gonna have to pay to keep that worthless pervert locked up. They should just ship em' all to the state o' Mariurado so we don't have to pay for em'.


This sounds like a joke but I know people that think this way. One of them is a true drunken wife beater that is actually brave enough to show up at church on Sunday morning escorting a wife with a black eye.

I think your suggestion/"joke" is a little bit extreme, however drug users do cause a lot of crime. People who are addicted to drugs generally will do a lot to try to get their "fix" including prostituting themselves, robbing homes/people/stores (including potentially killing people who get in their way). There is also a much higher rate of domestic violence among drug users then there is of alcoholics.

It is also true that many people on welfare abuse drugs with government/taxpayer money

[Koko]

I wish they'd lock all those mariwane druggies up and throw away the keys. I don't know why they can't just drink whiskey like the rest of us. Whiskey never causes all the problems those druggie perverts have. I don't know why they didn't just shoot em' while they had the chance! They brought enough guns to solve the problem. Shoot their friggin kids too. They'll just grow up to live on welfare and take drugs anyway. Now the rest of us GOD fearin', church goin' folks are gonna have to pay to keep that worthless pervert locked up. They should just ship em' all to the state o' Mariurado so we don't have to pay for em'.


This sounds like a joke but I know people that think this way. One of them is a true drunken wife beater that is actually brave enough to show up at church on Sunday morning escorting a wife with a black eye.

I think your suggestion/"joke" is a little bit extreme, however drug users do cause a lot of crime. People who are addicted to drugs generally will do a lot to try to get their "fix" including prostituting themselves, robbing homes/people/stores (including potentially killing people who get in their way). There is also a much higher rate of domestic violence among drug users then there is of alcoholics.

It is also true that many people on welfare abuse drugs with government/taxpayer money

I think he was making a joke about marijuana specifically. I think a meth-head is more likely to rob and kill someone for a fix than a pothead. If you're going to lump marijuana with cocaine and meth into a generic label of "drugs", you can also make an argument that alcohol is a drug and alcoholics are also drug users.

[QuestionAuthority]

I wish they'd lock all those mariwane druggies up and throw away the keys. I don't know why they can't just drink whiskey like the rest of us. Whiskey never causes all the problems those druggie perverts have. I don't know why they didn't just shoot em' while they had the chance! They brought enough guns to solve the problem. Shoot their friggin kids too. They'll just grow up to live on welfare and take drugs anyway. Now the rest of us GOD fearin', church goin' folks are gonna have to pay to keep that worthless pervert locked up. They should just ship em' all to the state o' Mariurado so we don't have to pay for em'.


This sounds like a joke but I know people that think this way. One of them is a true drunken wife beater that is actually brave enough to show up at church on Sunday morning escorting a wife with a black eye.

I think your suggestion/"joke" is a little bit extreme, however drug users do cause a lot of crime. People who are addicted to drugs generally will do a lot to try to get their "fix" including prostituting themselves, robbing homes/people/stores (including potentially killing people who get in their way). There is also a much higher rate of domestic violence among drug users then there is of alcoholics.

It is also true that many people on welfare abuse drugs with government/taxpayer money

Wow, pot must have improved a lot since the 70's. I'm going to have to get some of the new stuff and try it out. The last time I got high Columbian Gold was coming out of Florida by the truckload. That should tell you how long it's been. The only thing I was ever motivated enough to do high was eat twinkies. I think I would have forgotten what I was mad about long before I ever got around to beating my wife. It's much more likely that I would have beaten off watching her eat twinkies.

[counter]

I wish they'd lock all those mariwane druggies up and throw away the keys. I don't know why they can't just drink whiskey like the rest of us. Whiskey never causes all the problems those druggie perverts have. I don't know why they didn't just shoot em' while they had the chance! They brought enough guns to solve the problem. Shoot their friggin kids too. They'll just grow up to live on welfare and take drugs anyway. Now the rest of us GOD fearin', church goin' folks are gonna have to pay to keep that worthless pervert locked up. They should just ship em' all to the state o' Mariurado so we don't have to pay for em'.


This sounds like a joke but I know people that think this way. One of them is a true drunken wife beater that is actually brave enough to show up at church on Sunday morning escorting a wife with a black eye.

I think your suggestion/"joke" is a little bit extreme, however drug users do cause a lot of crime. People who are addicted to drugs generally will do a lot to try to get their "fix" including prostituting themselves, robbing homes/people/stores (including potentially killing people who get in their way). There is also a much higher rate of domestic violence among drug users then there is of alcoholics.

It is also true that many people on welfare abuse drugs with government/taxpayer money

That's really a lame tactic trying to lump cannabis with all other drugs/drug related crimes just to prove your point.  If cannabis grows were so dangerous  you would have seen crime rates go up in the states the grows are legal but that hasn't happened.  If anything it has done more to do to lesson "crime", like police arresting non violent people for possessing small amounts of cannabis. 

[niothor]

I wish they'd lock all those mariwane druggies up and throw away the keys. I don't know why they can't just drink whiskey like the rest of us. Whiskey never causes all the problems those druggie perverts have. I don't know why they didn't just shoot em' while they had the chance! They brought enough guns to solve the problem. Shoot their friggin kids too. They'll just grow up to live on welfare and take drugs anyway. Now the rest of us GOD fearin', church goin' folks are gonna have to pay to keep that worthless pervert locked up. They should just ship em' all to the state o' Mariurado so we don't have to pay for em'.


This sounds like a joke but I know people that think this way. One of them is a true drunken wife beater that is actually brave enough to show up at church on Sunday morning escorting a wife with a black eye.

I feel that way for crimes against children, violent crimes, or crimes committed with weapons of any kind if stated in an intelligent manner minus the "Skydaddy" addition.

Back on topic, you don't get much dumber than having been previously been busted for a grow operation knowing damn well your heat signature from an airborne thermal cam can be seen from 3000 meters as well as you electricity usage screaming you're at it again, even if it is something benign. Even dumber was having MJ present under those circumstances period.

This guy was stupid.

Stupidity cost him.


~BCX~

I think raiding the house with a large armed tactical squad wielding assault rifles may be over doing it a bit. That looks like the ground troops that were used on the raid of Osama bin Laden's compound. If they were afraid to knock on the door they should have just used a Pyros small tactical munition fired from a sentinel drone.

Pictures are not from this "arrest".

http://dailysurge.com/2014/05/fed-court-finds-search-seizure-guns-ok-without-warrant-evidence-crime/

http://chriswick.ca/jacksonville-police-staging-operation-operation-ceasefire/

Also , is there any other news source for this ?

[barwizi]

Not saying this happened here...but don't cops have a habit of "finding" things when they need to.

I propose a situation whereby they were tipped off and did raid his home, found nothing and knew after all the recent lashing out at police tactics  they would be in a difficult position since they just broke into his home with flimsy probable cause. A deal was made which benefited the guy and so the sentence was conveniently "suspended".

I don't know much about your legal system, but is this a possibility?

[niothor]

Not saying this happened here...but don't cops have a habit of "finding" things when they need to.

I propose a situation whereby they were tipped off and did raid his home, found nothing and knew after all the recent lashing out at police tactics  they would be in a difficult position since they just broke into his home with flimsy probable cause. A deal was made which benefited the guy and so the sentence was conveniently "suspended".

I don't know much about your legal system, but is this a possibility?

It's far more possible that a former MJ dealer had some drugs in his house isn't it?

Let's be honest , guys dealing in illegal drugs don't suddenly turn into angels.

[Acidyo]

Weird that the cops haven't showed up at my door yet, but then again I only have 4 miners operational.

[niothor]

Weird that the cops haven't showed up at my door yet, but then again I only have 4 miners operational.

Do you also have a background in Mj growing and a criminal record?
Maybe that's the difference.

[barwizi]

Not saying this happened here...but don't cops have a habit of "finding" things when they need to.

I propose a situation whereby they were tipped off and did raid his home, found nothing and knew after all the recent lashing out at police tactics  they would be in a difficult position since they just broke into his home with flimsy probable cause. A deal was made which benefited the guy and so the sentence was conveniently "suspended".

I don't know much about your legal system, but is this a possibility?

It's far more possible that a former MJ dealer had some drugs in his house isn't it?

Let's be honest , guys dealing in illegal drugs don't suddenly turn into angels.

Quite true, but as we all know there is always three sides to a story, i was throwing in a hypothesis.

[niothor]

Not saying this happened here...but don't cops have a habit of "finding" things when they need to.

I propose a situation whereby they were tipped off and did raid his home, found nothing and knew after all the recent lashing out at police tactics  they would be in a difficult position since they just broke into his home with flimsy probable cause. A deal was made which benefited the guy and so the sentence was conveniently "suspended".

I don't know much about your legal system, but is this a possibility?

It's far more possible that a former MJ dealer had some drugs in his house isn't it?

Let's be honest , guys dealing in illegal drugs don't suddenly turn into angels.

Quite true, but as we all know there is always three sides to a story, i was throwing in a hypothesis.

No , it's not always. And in this case it's just people trying to justify their wrong doings and blaming for all their failure in life.

Also , apart from this crappy blog post , do we have any confirmation this story actually happened?