Cops bust crypto mine stealing electricity near Bangkok

Police raided a huge crypto mine in Samut Prakan province, just south of Bangkok, yesterday. To dig for their digital currencies, the miners used stolen electricity with damages amounting to more than one million baht.

Police from Samut Prakan Police Station and officials from the Metropolitan Electricity Authority (MEA) raided a three-storey rented building in Soi Mungkorn-Nark Dee in Phraek Sa sub-district, Mueang district. During the investigation, the officers discovered that there were 100 crypto-mining devices on the second and third floors of the building, while the first floor housed a lot of computers.

No one was inside the building and no one appeared to be living there. The miners used an internet system to operate each mining device remotely, reports KhaoSod.

The officers from MEA conducted the raid after spotting an unusual amount of electricity usage in the area two months ago. Further investigations revealed that the building was illegally using electricity by doctoring the property’s digital multimeter, which is why the MEA was unaware of the situation.

According to the MEA, the crypto mine was using about 50 kilowatts per month, which costs about 200,000 baht. However, the tenant was only paying 3,000 to 4,000 baht per month. The amount of damage caused was expected to be over one million baht.

The officer from the MEA, Kriangkamon Kanlapadee, revealed that this was the fourth crypto mine raid in the province recently. The other three mines that stole electricity were raided and closed down earlier.

Kriangkamon added that there were six other suspicious places, but the miners had already moved out. He urged electricity thieves to stop their actions, emphasising that it affected the whole country.

Last year, The Department of Special Investigation (DSI) raided about 50 crypto mines in Bangkok and Nonthaburi province for stealing electricity, which caused collective damages exceeding 325 million baht. Each mine had about 100 mining machines which were about 2,000 machines in total. The mines paid only 300 to 2,000 baht per month, despite the actual cost being over 500,000 baht.