“I am confident that the residents of Mestia Municipality will feel the benefit directly; the burden imposed by illegal activity will be lifted,” said the Speaker of the Georgian Parliament, Shalva Papuashvili, in remarks to journalists.

Papuashvili stated that it had been plain to see for some time that something unlawful was taking place in Mestia, and that the operations conducted in recent days had borne that out entirely.

“You yourselves heard the figures, 130 million kilowatt-hours of electricity were being consumed in Mestia Municipality. This, at a time when comparable municipalities of similar size and population, accounting for all relevant factors, typically consume around 10 million. Consumption was thirteen times higher than expected, making it abundantly clear that something illegal was going on. The operations carried out in recent days have confirmed as much. Beyond the illegality itself, all of this was placing a very real burden on the residents of Mestia Municipality: their electricity supply had become severely disrupted, something they themselves had been vocal about. In that sense, the measures now being taken are genuinely significant. I am confident that the people of Mestia Municipality will feel the benefit in their daily lives; the strain caused by this unlawful activity will be removed,” said Papuashvili.

On June 1, Georgia’s Vice Prime Minister and State Minister for Law Enforcement Coordination, Mamuka Mdinaradze, announced: “We are taking decisive steps against illegal activity that has been damaging the energy sector. One of the key challenges in this area concerns unlawful crypto-mining operations in Mestia.”

On June 4, the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Georgia confirmed that police had seized 148 so-called mining devices in Mestia Municipality in connection with violations of electricity use regulations.