ICE raids Texas Bitcoin mining site tied to Bitmain in chip export control probe

Federal agents on Monday raided the Lonestar Dream bitcoin mining site in Pyote, Texas, going straight for an ASIC repair center run by Bitmain-affiliated ADW Tech, according to a report from ￰0￱ Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE) operation unfolded at sunrise and zeroed in on the contractor that keeps Antminer rigs running at the 30 MW site, recently sold by ￰1￱ allegedly said the raid looked like a war scene. “Helicopters, snipers, armed men,” one source told Blockspace while describing an ICE helicopter circling above before “a cavalcade of black Tahoes arrived at the scene.” He added agents asked “leading questions… ‘who does this, who does that.’” Multiple agencies were present: ICE, the FBI, Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS), and ￰2￱ and Border Protection (CBP) all took part, according to a person on ￰3￱ detain ADW Tech staff and seize documents Law enforcement removed 12 or 13 workers, roughly half the repair shop staff, from the Pyote facility after they failed to show proper ￰4￱ same source said ICE targeted Chinese nationals and took everyone with expired ￰5￱ raid did not affect other local operators such as Genesis Digital Assets, which runs a 195 MW bitcoin mine in Pyote but was not a subject of this ￰6￱ Tech is a Bitmain contractor and certified Antminer repair shop embedded within Lonestar ￰7￱ company’s presence highlights how West Texas has become a hub for mining, drawing big names with cheap power and wide land.

Poolin’s recent sale of the site still left ADW Tech doing the repair work, and that is where federal scrutiny ￰8￱ action comes as Bitmain-linked repair centers in the ￰9￱ rising government ￰10￱ raid connects with a longer story involving the Trump administration’s handling of mining hardware ￰11￱ the end of 2024, CBP began sporadically holding and seizing ASIC miner shipments at U. S. ports, sometimes keeping them for months and charging holding fees without explaining the ￰12￱ shipments stayed detained into 2025 after Trump took office and only began to be released by late Q1 and early ￰13￱ said they were looking for restricted AI chips on ASIC miners’ control boards from Sophgo, a semiconductor company that shares Bitmain CEO Micree ￰14￱ ￰15￱ of Commerce is actively investigating possible sanctions violations by Sophgo, which ties directly to why these miners and repair hubs are now under heavy federal ￰16￱ a premium crypto trading community free for 30 days - normally $100/mo.