Two Venezuelan Bitcoin miners arrested amid ban

Venezuela’s main intelligence agency , the Bolivarian Intelligence Service, has arrested two Venezuelan citizens in Valencia, the capital of Carabobo state, a few days ago for mining Bitcoin, according to local media reports.

As early as Monday, a Venezuelan media published an article claiming that Bitcoin is a currency that serves criminal and terrorist organizations. The article was published in the Corporación Venezolana de Televisión (VTV). VTV is a public network in Venezuela and a subsidiary of the Communications and Information Management Center .

The article concludes that Bitcoin is the currency used by cyber criminals, so criminals and terrorists are the main supporters of this online currency.

This confirms the Venezuelan government and authorities’ increasingly hardline stance toward Bitcoin and other online virtual currencies, which has surfaced following reports that two Venezuelan citizens had been arrested for mining Bitcoin.

Augusto Padrón Celis, 31, and Eleazar Perales Gonzalez, 46, were arrested by a team of Bolivarian Intelligence Service troops in the industrial area of ​​Valencia, where they were mining bitcoins, according to the city's publications and the city's daily newspaper.

During the arrest, authorities seized his mining machines and four laptops.

The arrests took place in Carabobo state, whose capital, Valencia, is Venezuela's third-largest city and the country's industrial and manufacturing hub .

The two bitcoin miners are expected to be prosecuted by the Seventh Control Court of Carabobo State.