Officers from the Technology Crime Suppression Division (TCSD) and officials from the Provincial Electricity Authority (PEA) raided illegal Bitcoin mining operations at a vegetarian shelter and a warehouse in Samut Sakhon and Ratchaburi provinces on Friday.
In a coordinated operation, the TCSD police and PEA officials searched a vegetarian shelter in Nong Song Hong sub-district, Ban Paew district of Samut Sakhon and found 187 Bitcoin mining machines.
PEA officials also discovered that the electricity meter at the shelter had been tampered with, to show less power consumption than actual.
A man, identified as Sombat Tangnava, who claimed to be the caretaker of the vegetarian shelter, was taken into custody.
In the other raid, on a warehouse near Kaen Chan Hill in Muang district of Ratchaburi, police uncovered 465 Bitcoin mining machines. The electricity meter was also found to have been tampered with. The warehouse caretaker, Kiatkong Tumthong, was detained for questioning.
The two suspects told the police that the Bitcoin mining machines were legally imported from China and sold to members of the public who were interested in investing in the trading of several crypto currencies, including Bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETH), Tether (USDT), Binance Coin (BNB) and Dogecoin (DOGE)
Both claimed that each investor was charged 6,200 baht per month for each mining machine kept at either of the two locations, while the electricity was estimated at 9,000 baht per month per machine.
