The National Police continues with the investigations to track, and miners who carry out their activities without the required permits. Officials from the country’s crypto assets superintendency also acted in confiscation.
Officials of the Bolivarian National Police (PNB) of Venezuela, attached to the Directorate of Criminal Investigations, seized at least 165 graphics cards (GPU) that served as tools for digital mining of networks such as Ethereum.
The Officials of the Bolivarian National Police carried out the operation on Thursday, October 21, in a warehouse based in the Guatire parish in Miranda state.
According to a police report revealed on the official website of the agency, the officials acted in parallel with the National Superintendency of Cryptoactives and Related Activities (Sunacrip), the entity that supervises activities with cryptocurrencies.
This situation happened right after the entity discovered that the site was operating without the corresponding permission.
The report does not clarify if any arrest happened or what kind of cryptocurrencies got mined with the seized GPUs. However, the report highlights that, with these miners, they were extracting ether (ETH), the cryptocurrency of the Ethereum network, and others that get mined with graphics cards under normal conditions.
The agency highlighted that investigation would continue to find other locations where digital mining is happening illegally.
Bitcoin mining in Venezuela became a legal activity in September last year. Although, the license to carry out these activities is a mandatory requirement. Said requirement gets requested through the Comprehensive Registry of Cryptoactive Services (Risec).
While digital mining is not illegal in Venezuela, there have been irregular episodes against miners of Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, such as the disconnection of farms that had their proper licenses.
One of these events happened last July, when officials from the National Electric Corporation (Corpoelec), for no apparent reason, removed the high-voltage fuses from a warehouse in Carabobo state, rendering it inoperative.
A place dedicated to digital mining also received the visit of officials of the National Electricity Corporation (Corpoelec). Without any apparent reason, the officials removed the high-voltage fuses from the place, rendering it inoperative.
Unidentified sources detailed to various media outlets that the officials appeared at the scene without a search warrant and the presence of the personnel of the governing body of mining activity in the country.
The facility, which allegedly houses hundreds of cryptocurrency mining equipment, was offline for several hours. Sunacrip, together with the Carabobeña de CriptoActivos Corporation, gave a complete response to the complaints made by the representatives of the place and proceeded to reconnect the equipment.
Subsequently, the regulatory body for digital mining in Venezuela promised those who carry out the activity that they would not receive visits from any authority without the presence of their staff.
By: Jenson Nuñez
