Police surprised 20 armed assailants and seized rifles after the escape.
Prosecutor investigates mobile robbery, while reinforcing security in the area.
They looked like police, but their intentions were others. Twenty assailants, dresses with uniforms similar to those of the public force and carrying weapons of war, broke into a Bitcoin mining farm in Colonel Bogado. What followed was a night of horror, shots and a human hunt that shook the department of Itapúa 311 kilometers from Asunción, the capital of Paraguay.
The assailant band did not look for gold jewelry, nor lots of money, They wanted to undermine their own bitcoinwith the same equipment that is used worldwide to generate it, especially in Paraguayan territory. Therefore, the Latin American country is no longer only synonymous with cheap opportunity and energy; but now it is also from film assaults.
The nightmare began at dawn on Tuesday, May 13 when the men, camouflaged, assault the establishment in the San Isidro neighborhood. His arrival, aboard four vehicles, It was the prelude to chaosas reported by local media.
Two workers were attacked, one of them brutally beaten in the head with a blunt object. Everything with The idea of loading with the equipment ASIC specialized for mining Bitcoin, although the shadow of other intentions still plans on official research.
Luckily, or routine, a police patrol that inspected the area ran into the assault in full swing. “We were on a preventive route when we listened to the noises and saw the suspicious vehicles,” said Commissioner Benicio Méndez, head of the Coronel Bogado 7th Police Station.
The surprise became battle. When they were discovered, the criminals responded with a rain of bullets, leaving the police patrol riddled with twelve impacts. “Thank God and the preparation, my men managed to protect themselves and came out unharmed,” Méndez added, relieved but aware of the severity of the confrontation.
Hell then moved to the streets. The desperate escape from criminals triggered a cinematographic persecution that Colonel Bogado took by surprise. In confusion and rush, one of the assailants, injured in the exchange of shots, was left behind.
This man, with a previous criminal history and whose identity is maintained in reserve, was captured and transferred to a medical center under strong police custody. In the crime scene, bulletproof vests and abandoned long weapons They left a picture of unleashed violence.
Then the layers of that bloody plot began to leave when the prosecutor Irene Raquel Rolón ordered the intervention of the farm. And it was there, among the zumbantes mining teams of Bitcoin who emerged three Chinese citizens.
Subsequently, a data crossing with migrations revealed its irregular situation in the country. And with the speed that merited the case, foreigners, 54, 29 and 28, were expelled from Paraguay the next day, on Wednesday, May 14.
On the other hand, prosecutor Irene Rolón, in charge of the investigation, He revealed today A turn that adds an additional layer to the violent episode. This is because the security guard of the Bitcoin mining farm was arrested, facing charges for aggravated robbery, under the shadow of a possible complicity with the same band that sowed the terror that morning in Colonel Bogado.
Bitcoin miners: a loot coveted in Paraguay
What happened in Colonel Bogado is not an isolated stain on the radar. Paraguay, with its cheap hydroelectric energy from the imposing Itaipu dam, has become a magnet for Bitcoin mining, but also a new and coveted hunting scenario for organized crime.
The recent memory evokes the assault of September 9, 2024 in the San José neighborhood of Ciudad del Este, where another strongly armed band tried to take the valuable miners of Bitcoin of the Brazilian Anderson de Melo Barros da Rocha.
On that occasion, the rapid police response after an alert to 911 also culminated in a violent shooting. Although criminals They fled with more than 15 ASIC teamsone was arrested and seven recovered devices.
These high profile assaults are added to the constant battle against energy theft, evidenced by the more than 11,000 Bitcoin miners seized by the government in their attempt to stop the electric indent that feeds illegal mining.
While the National Police Peina Itapúa in search of the fugitives and tries to unravel the connections of this band, fear and uncertainty grow in the Bitcoin mining farm, an industry that now loads with the weight of insecurity.
