Fire at Poland's Starlink Site: Turkish Criminal Group Under Suspicion
German outlet Der Spiegel reports that the Turkish criminal group Daltonlar may be linked to a fire at a Starlink satellite communications station in Poland. Two Turkish nationals have been detained in Germany, and a court will soon decide on extraditing them to Poland.
The Turkish criminal group known as "Daltons" may be connected to a fire at a Starlink satellite communications station in the village of Wola Krobowska in Poland's Masovian Voivodeship, according to the German magazine Der Spiegel. The station is owned by the Polish state telecommunications company Exatel and, among other things, carries internet traffic through Poland, including to Ukraine. It is also part of the SpaceX system that connects Starlink terminals.
The attack and the arrests
The attack took place late on 23 September, but the station kept operating afterwards. The next day, Poland's digital affairs minister Krzysztof Gawkowski told broadcaster TVP that the sabotage had been deliberately planned to halt the station's operation and thereby cut internet access for various institutions, including the Ukrainian army.
On 12 October, two Turkish citizens were detained in the German city of Nürtingen at Poland's request on suspicion of involvement in the fire. According to Der Spiegel, they are 38-year-old Yumit E. and 34-year-old Muslum T. They most likely belong to the Daltons or at least may have acted on the group's instructions. A court in Stuttgart is due to rule in the coming days on whether to extradite them to Poland.
Possible Russian role
Der Spiegel writes that the Daltons may have received an order from Russian intelligence services. Until now, when organising sabotage in Europe, those services have mainly relied on low-level agents: petty criminals who carried out tasks for small payments. If a link to the Daltons is confirmed, it would point to a change in Russian intelligence strategy, the magazine says.
About the group
The Daltons were formed in 2024. According to the outlet haqqin, they consist mainly of young people born in 2000 or later. In Turkey, the group was involved in the murder of Serdar Oktem, a well-known lawyer and member of the Nationalist Movement Party, who was shot in his car in Istanbul. Members also operate in Germany and other European countries, engaging in extortion under the guise of "protection", arms trading and contract killings.
Spiegel reports that the group's leader, Beratcan Gokdemir, was detained in Russia the same year. Turkey requested his extradition, but Russia never handed him over. Experts suggest the Kremlin may have hoped to get something in return from the Daltons. It is unknown whether Gokdemir is still in Russia.
