State police chief Arjunaidi Mohamed said in the operation on Sept 21, police and a special team from Tenaga Nasional Berhad (TNB) raided 30 premises carrying out mining activities in eight districts.

“During the raids, police arrested nine local men, aged 18 to 27, who later disclosed the locations where they had stored Bitcoin mining machines,” he told a press conference today.

Police seized 2,137 mining machines worth RM1.3 million, 10 laptops, five computers and six mining graphic cards.

“Investigations found that TNB suffered losses of RM24.36 million as a result of the illegal activities carried out since September last year,” he said.

Arjunaidi said the suspects were remanded for between two and four days under Sections 379 and 427 of the Penal Code and Section 37 (1) of the Electric Supply Act 1990.

“Police are tracing the group’s mastermind to assist in the investigation,” he added.