Key facts: ANDE detected irregular equipment in the Alto Paraná area. After the increase in rates for the industry, operations continue for energy theft. Paraguayan authorities detected a Bitcoin (BTC) mining farm with an illegal connection, in the midst of the official crusade to prevent «energy theft» and the latest rate increases that affect the industry. With the discovery, they added some 18 criminal complaints against miners. Officials from the Eastern Regional Loss Management Office of the Paraguayan Energy Agency (PREPA) National Electricity Administration (ANDE) disconnected and removed the connection last Friday. The address depended on a low voltage line, located at km 21, Monday side, in the city of Minga Guazú. During the operation, which had the consent of the owner, the technicians verified that the irregular connection was being used to mine bitcoins. According to the images of the inspection, There were about 10 ASICs in the building. The equipment caused a loss of 49,749,288 guaraníes per month, equivalent to 7,000 dollars. The amount, in addition to the costs of the intervention and the corresponding local fines, must be paid by the owner of the home. The ANDE procedure was carried out last Friday, in the Alto Paraná area, one of the jurisdictions where the most similar incidents were detected due to irregular connections of the population. According to an official announcement, on Monday, July 8, the formal criminal complaint was going to be filed for the crimes of illegal theft of electric energy, disruption of public service and sabotage that correspond to articles 173, 218 and 274 of the Paraguayan Penal Code.
ANDE trucks in the Alto Paraná operation. Source: ABC Paraguay As reported by BitcoinDynamic, several political and Congress leaders have been calling attention to the alleged complicity of the organization. In recent days, the voice of the Paraguayan senator, Rafael Filizzolawho made explicit mention of the latter incident:
“Cases of illegal crypto mining continue to grow, who knows how many more there are! But how can it be that there are no defendants or indictments at ANDE? Is no one guilty of these deals?” Rafael Filizzola, senator from Paraguay.
According to official reports, as of July 4, ANDE has filed a total of 17 criminal cases for theft of electrical energy. The latest case of Minga Guazú is number 18. In the proceedings, more than 9,410 data processors, 42 transformers and conductors of various types used that were supplied with an illegal supply were seized. Despite the raids and disconnections, the organization remains in the public eye. On July 3, Senator Enrique Salym Buzarquis pointed out that «the senior executives of ANDE» and «the complicity of its officials invoice in average 500,000 dollars in bribes for stealing energy from the Paraguayan people with illegal cryptocurrencies.” That information came to light through press statements by an ANDE engineer himself, Lucio Ortiz, while carrying out an operation to remove illegal transformers. In a statement, the regulatory authority “categorically” rejected the legislator’s comments and said that “given the seriousness of the aforementioned events,” it requested that an investigation be launched to find out what was reported. But these are not the only inconveniences that have arisen recently. Mining companies that operate legally filed a complaint about the increase in energy rates for the sector, whose costs rose 16%. In addition, they warned that this increase in prices will lead to a migration of companies to other countries and economic damage to the national treasury. As BitcoinDynamic reported, some of these projects are moving to Argentina.