According to a local report, two men in the city of Valencia, capital of the state of Carabobo, Venezuela were arrested by the Bolivarian Intelligence Service, the primary intelligence agency in Venezuela. The arrests were made few days ago, for mining bitcoin.
Earlier this week on Monday, an article was published on a state-owned media outlet in Venezuela, one which summed up bitcoin as a currency used by criminals and terrorist groups. The article was published by Corporación Venezolana de Televisión or VTV, a public network and state-owned broadcaster directly under the purview of the administration of the ministry of Popular Power for Communication and Information, in Venezuela.
The bottom line according to the article – bitcoin is a currency for cybercriminals and that terrorists and criminals were the “main advocates” of the cryptocurrency.
In what confirms the increasingly hardline stance by the Venezuelan government and authorities against Bitcoin and crypto and virtual currencies that pose a threat to fiat money, a report has surfaced that two Venezuelan men were arrested this week for mining bitcoin.
A report by Notitarde, a publication based out of Valencia, Venezuela and a daily newspaper in the country has revealed that Augusto Padrón Celis (31) and Jose Eleazar Perales Gonzalez (46) were arrested by a group of troops from the Bolivarian Intelligence Service in an industrial zone in Valencia, where they were mining bitcoin.
With the arrests, authorities also seized mining machines as well as four laptops.
The arrests were made in the state of Carabobo which sees its capital city of Valencia as the third largest city in Venezuela and home to the country’s industries and manufacturing companies.
The two bitcoin miners are awaiting prosecution at Tribunal Séptimo de Control, or the Seventh Control Court in Carabobo.
Details are currently scarce. CCN has reached out to the Bolivarian Intelligence Service [Caution: Unsafe certificate] for comment and will update this story when or if we hear more.
Disclaimer: Content from Notitarde is taken as an unofficial translation.
Featured image from Shutterstock.
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