Paraguayan law enforcement has deported three individuals and arrested another for attempting to steal crypto miners at a facility near the country’s Itaipu hydroelectric dam.
According to a May 15 statement from Paraguayan prosecutor Irene Rolón, the men were caught by police soon after breaking into a locked section of Teratech SA’s facility in Coronel Bogado, leading to their arrest.
Prosecutors believe the men may have had ties to Teratech as independent contractors, but are still waiting on official confirmation from the company’s CEO.
The three deported were Chinese nationals Jinping Duan, Tian Jianyun and Zheng Guanglong, who did not have official entry records into the country. Paraguayan authorities and Interpol believe the men illegally entered through Brazil or Bolivia.
The other person arrested, Nahun María Velázquez Garcete, is a legal resident in Paraguay but is believed to be part of a criminal organization.
He has been charged with aggravated theft and is currently in pretrial detention.
The arrested individual was hospitalized in critical condition soon after the arrest, but the injuries sustained weren’t disclosed.
Paraguayan officials believe other individuals were involved in the attempted theft and are working to identify those people. As such, the case is still under investigation.
Deportees may have been working illegally for months
Rolón believes the undocumented immigrants had been in Paraguay for several months and had come to work as programmers. However, it isn’t clear whether that work was performed for the company.
Paraguayan officials are waiting on a report from Teratech’s CEO to determine the exact nature of his relationship with the three men.
Related: Bitcoin miner Hive taps Paraguay for low-cost energy partnership
Paraguay is considered well-suited for crypto mining operations due to its abundant renewable energy resources, much of which is underutilized.
The Itaipu dam has become a popular site for miners to set up, as it supplies all of Paraguay’s local electricity needs and leaves a large amount of excess electricity to tap into.
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