THAILAND: Thai authorities have seized more than US$8.6 million (S$11.1 million) in Bitcoin mining equipment, marking one of the country’s biggest moves yet against a sprawling cybercrime network that investigators say stretches far beyond Thailand’s borders.
On Tuesday morning, officers from the Department of Special Investigation (DSI) fanned out across six locations in Samut Sakhon and another in Uthai Thani, where they uncovered a maze of industrial-scale mining rigs—3,642 machines in total—packed neatly into soundproof, water-cooled metal containers. The setup, officials said, looked less like a hobby operation and more like a full-fledged underground data centre.
A high-tech revenue engine for criminal gangs
What used to be dismissed as petty electricity theft has grown into something far more serious. Thai investigators now believe these mining farms served as a crucial revenue engine for scam syndicates operating out of Myanmar, helping move or generate more than US$143 million in illicit funds.
Authorities have since reached out to Beijing for help tracing the money trail.
Crypto mining, once a niche tech pursuit, has effectively become a two-in-one business model for criminal groups: it turns stolen electricity into profit while quietly cleaning dirty money by converting it into freshly minted digital assets that blend into the blockchain.
The crime network is bigger than it looks
However, experts caution against oversimplifying the threat.
David Sehyeon Baek, a cybercrime analyst who spoke to Decrypt, said that labelling them as merely “Chinese scam gangs” misses the scale of the operation.
“What we’re really looking at is a transnational franchise,” he explained. “Capital may originate from Chinese networks, but operations span Myanmar, Cambodia, Laos, Thailand, and beyond.”
Baek said the same groups responsible for running forced-labour scam compounds are now building out hardened physical infrastructure: data centres, compounds, crypto mines. The goal, he noted, is simple—resilience. The more spread-out and sophisticated the setup, the harder it becomes for authorities to crack down.
By funnelling illicit money into mining rigs, these networks bury their activities under layers of shell companies and fake directors, making it increasingly difficult for investigators to tell which coins are clean and which are criminal.
A regional problem with a steep price tag
Thailand isn’t alone in facing this surge. Across Southeast Asia, illegal mining has become a costly headache.
Malaysia’s national electricity provider recently reported that crypto miners have stolen roughly US$1.1 billion worth of electricity in just five years. In response, authorities there have turned to thermal-imaging drones and handheld sensors to track down hidden operations. Miners, in turn, have become more creative—installing heat shields, CCTV systems, and other tricks to stay off the radar.
The crackdown is escalating. Earlier this year, Malaysian police announced a 300% rise in crypto-linked power theft, with May’s raids alone shutting down operations that were draining more than $8,000 a month in stolen electricity.
Global organisations are sounding alarms as well. The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime warned in April that illegal crypto mining has become a powerful laundering tool for crime syndicates. Interpol has since labelled scam-compound networks a top-tier transnational threat. And in the U.S., D.C. Attorney Jeanine Pirro recently launched a Scam Center Strike Force aimed directly at crypto fraud connected to organised groups based in China.
These mines won’t just vanish
Still, despite the major seizure, experts are sceptical that this crackdown will shut down the networks for good.
“We shouldn’t expect these mines to disappear—just relocate,” Baek said. “As enforcement ramps up, the operations will simply move deeper into remote areas or hop across borders, just like the scam compounds before them.”
The real challenge, he added, will be hitting the syndicates where it hurts: their financial model, not just their machinery.
For now, Thailand’s raids mark a turning point in how the region views illegal crypto mining—not as a fringe power-theft nuisance, but as a key piece of a highly organised, technologically savvy criminal empire that’s growing harder to ignore.
