March 08, 2024
Lawrence Township Police/Facebook
Hundreds of SpaceX Starlink terminals were allegedly purchased by a New Jersey man using stolen credit cards. The devices are used to connect to the internet via company's network of satellites.
A New Jersey man allegedly was caught with hundreds of devices used to connect to Elon Musk's orbiting network of Starlink satellites, which provide internet access to remote and underserved parts of the world, that police said were bought using stolen credit cards.
Police in Lawrence Township, which is just north of Trenton, began investigating 35-year-old Kelvin Rodriguez-Moya in December after getting a tip about him receiving a suspiciously large number of shipments, investigators said.
Detectives observed Rodriguez-Moya for three months before stopping the pickup truck he was driving on March 4 and allegedly found him hauling 223 Starlink terminals, which are used to connect to the company's satellite internet service. Starlink is part of Musk's aerospace company SpaceX and the terminals cost about $600 each.
Authorities allege these devices — which are about the size of a pizza box — had been purchased online, shipped to multiple names at the same address and were paid for using stolen credit card accounts. In total, police said Rodriguez-Moya acquired 675 Starlink terminals valued at about $400,000.
Rodriguez-Moya told police he had been paid to drive the Starlink terminals to Newark, New Jersey, where he lives, so the devices could be resold, according to police reports. Authorities are still investigating where the terminals were destined to be trafficked after Newark and how Rodriguez-Moya got involved in the alleged scheme.
Starlink launched its low-Earth orbiting satellites in 2019 and now has more than 5,500 of them in orbit. Groups of them, which are called constellations, can sometimes be observed trailing through the sky at night.
✨Hey @elonmusk I think I spotted a @Starlink satellite train over the @taylorswift13 concert in Philly! 🤩
— AJ (@AmitpalJohalMD) May 25, 2023
🛰️🚀#TaylorSwift #starlink @SpaceX #space #Satellite #Amazing #beautiful pic.twitter.com/XPd1YxwRwL
Starlink terminals connect to the high-speed broadband network broadcast by the satellites, providing service in places without fixed-line connections, like rural areas. The hardware kits police seized from Rodriguez-Moya contained a dish, router, stand and cable.
The terminals are now the subject of a Congressional investigation over Russia's alleged use of Starlink in its war in Ukraine, where officials allege Russia has illegally obtained them to use on the front lines. Last year, Starlink entered a contract with the Pentagon to send its devices to Ukraine to support its military and hospitals. SpaceX had said it could only continue providing Staklink access to Ukraine with support from the U.S. government.
In a letter to SpaceX, Democratic representatives Jamie Raskin, of Maryland, and Robert Garcia, of California, wrote that Russia's alleged "misuse of Starlink terminals outside Russia's internationally recognized borders poses a serious threat to Ukraine's security, Ukrainian lives, and U.S. national security."
Musk has denied selling Starlink terminals directly to Russia, calling reports to the contrary "categorically false."
"To the best of our knowledge, no Starlinks have been sold directly or indirectly to Russia," Musk wrote last month on X, formerly Twitter.
SpaceX CFO Bret Johson told Lawrence police the company was pleased to see "fraudsters" being held accountable. Bennett Woo, the company's director of payment risk and fraud, told police the case in New Jersey is "the largest fraud recovery to date by an order of magnitude."
Rodriguez-Moya has been charged with receiving stolen property and trafficking stolen property. He's being held at the Mercer County Corrections Center ahead of a detention hearing.
