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John McAfee found hiding in mysterious ‘ghost hotel’ crypto farm after Instagram clues exposed his location

2021-06-24 00:00:00.0 太阳报-世界新闻原网页

CYBER security pioneer John McAfee was reportedly holed up in a mysterious "ghost hotel" at a Spanish resort where he reportedly turned into a secret cryptocurrency farm.

The 75-year-old, who was found dead in a Barcelona cell last night, said he was in Belarus last year, but was tracked down by internet sleuths who examined his Instagram and tweeted images and pieced together his location.

John McAfee claimed he was in Belarus, but internet sleuths found clues in his Instagram images 13

McAfee also tweeted the pic on Twitter where he claimed he was in the Eastern European country 13

Here he is pictured with a can of whipped cream which is only sold in Spain 13

Hotel Daurada Park where he was allegedly holed up Credit: onthebeach.co.uk

Thanks to a group of computer nerds turned detective, it appeared turned out that McAfee had shacked up in a closed-down Hotel Daurada Park which is an old rickety roadside building in Cambrils, in the north eastern Spanish region of Catalonia.

Spanish newspaper El Confidencial reported at the time of McAfee’s arrest in October that he had been living there since at least March 2020.

Other reports suggest the British born antivirus pioneer was operating from what has been described as a "ghost hotel" for two years.

According to local media, McAfee would spend his time in the basement.

Meanwhile, McAfee had duped people into believing he was based somewhere in Belarus.

But his Instagram posting and tweets was to give his location away.

After he slipped up and said he was doing a lockdown in Spain a group of eagle-eyed Spaniards decided to track him down.

Analysing images they deduced he was not in the eastern European country of Belorussia.

They discovered that when he claimed to be dining in Belarus but was actually in a restaurant with bottles of Spanish Bezoya water bottles or in a car with ATO cream which is also made there.

A bottle of Catalonian Sumarroca cava was also spotted.

They found the beaches he was photographed himself on by using Google Maps.

The bottle of Bezoya can be clearly seen on a table 13

The brand of mineral water is sold only in Spain 13

One of the sleuths also noticed the Cava which is made in Catalonia where the hotel is located 13

The Catalonian Sumarroca Cava is a celebrated wine 13

The sleuths matched these photos with Google Earth images

One guest who stayed at the two storey, 110 room hotel before it closed, described it as the Overlook Hotel from Stephen King's The Shining.

In a TripAdviser post, they said: "It must have had a moment of splendour and grace back in the 80's.

"In 2016 trust me it was spooky. you will feel that just like Jack Torrance, it is easy to lose your mind."

Local and regional police discovered in 2018 the hotel was hiding a cryptocurrency mining operation in its basement and parking garages.

The hotel had a building permit which it was rumoured was going to be used to transform it into a “macro brothel”.

But rather than hookers, tipped-off police found an elaborate cryptocurrency mining operation using dozens of computers.

To access them, you had to pass two controls that required you to enter your fingerprint.

BIO-METRIC SECURITY MEASURES

The sophisticated set-up boasted biometric security measures for access to different levels.

It was reportedly the first ever cryptocurrency mining operation ever discovered in that part of Catalonia.

The owner of the building is a Russian businessman, according to El Confidencial, who claim that McAfee had boasted about employing Russian staff.

The entrepreneur fled his secret hideout and was arrested last October at Barcelona's international airport and locked up.

Just hours before he was suspected to have killed himself a Spanish court approved McAfee's extradition to the United States on tax-related charges that could have landed him in prison for 30 years.