CARACAS, June 21 (Xinhua) -- Venezuela's prosecutor-general, Tarek William Saab, ordered on Thursday the arrest of 16 farmers for not meeting their production contracts with the state-owned DelAgro, responsible for the production, distribution and sale of foodstuffs.

At a press conference, Saab said the 16 producers had not met the terms of a financing contract, by which they were meant to deliver 38 percent of their harvest to DelAgro.

"They tried to cheat, despite having the agricultural supplies, technical assistance, machinery and even plots of land," he explained.

Saab said that DelAgro had invested 110 billion Bolivars (1.375 million U.S. dollars) and that the producers had agreed to deliver 10 million kilos of rice to the company. However, they delivered only 17.5 percent of their total harvest.

Saab also announced that the government's operation to stop illegal currency exchanges was progressing, saying that 1,500 arrest warrants had been issued.

Furthermore, 2,235 bank accounts have been blocked for the illegal buying and selling of dollars. Another 309 accounts have been blocked, for receiving illegal remittances from the likes of Mexico, Colombia, Brazil, Honduras and Uruguay.

He stated that the only legal way to send remittances to Venezuela is through international operators, Western Union and MoneyGram.