Thai authorities have raided seven bitcoin mines worth an estimated 300 million baht in two provinces, saying they suspected the operations were run by Chinese transnational scam networks.

The Department of Special Investigation (DSI) said the raids happened on Tuesday at six locations in Samut Sakhon province and another in Uthai Thani. Four of them were set up in warehouses and three others were in houses.

In the raids, officials impounded 3,642 mining devices worth 270 million baht as well as electrical and related equipment worth 30 million baht.

Most of the devices were installed in containers with water-cooling systems and the containers were modified to be soundproof.

Producing one bitcoin requires approximately 155,000 kilowatt-hours (units) of electricity, based on 2023 estimates for highly efficient setups. At an average cost of 4 baht per unit, this works out to about 620,000 baht.

The DSI said its detectives found that the bitcoin mines were operated to generate income for Chinese scam gangs based in Myanmar, which had accumulated financial transactions exceeding 5 billion baht.

The DSI said it was expanding its investigation and already asked the Chinese government to support the effort.