Mexico City lawmaker proposes prison terms for electricity theft used in crypto mining

Alberto Martínez Urincho, a Morena deputy in the Mexico City Congress, has proposed an amendment to the Federal Criminal Code to penalize the theft of electricity for cryptocurrency mining. The initiative seeks to establish prison sentences ranging from 5 to 12 years and fines between 1,000 and 3,000 times the daily value of the Unidad de Medida y Actualización (UMA).

Under the proposal, penalties could increase by up to half, potentially reaching 18 years of imprisonment, if aggravating factors are present. These include tapping directly into medium or high-voltage lines, causing significant disruptions to the power supply, or operating clandestine data centers. The measure also includes the seizure of equipment and products derived from the crime.

The proposal specifically targets the unauthorized use, sale, or trafficking of energy from the National Electric System to power infrastructure for mining virtual assets or processing massive amounts of data. The initiative must still be approved by the Mexico City legislature and subsequently by the Congress of the Union to become federal law.