New Jersey police recover hundreds of SpaceX Starlink terminals bought with stolen credit card

LAWRENCE TWP., N.J. (WPVI) -- Investigators in Mercer County, New Jersey, announced a bust involving orders from SpaceX.

Lawrence Township police say a man, identified as 35-year-old Kelvin Rodriguez-Moya of Newark, New Jersey, used stolen credit cards or hacked billing accounts to buy Starlink terminals from the company.

Starlink is a division of the private space tech company SpaceX. The devices are often used for satellite internet service in remote areas.

A total of 675 devices, worth around $400,000, were purchased illegally, police say.

All of the devices were delivered to a home on Roxboro Road, where they were then picked up and transported to northern New Jersey.

"We received information from a resident that there was a large number of deliveries going to a residence within our town," noted Chief Chris Longo with Lawrence Township police.

"Typically, what happens is the suspect would use these devices to resell and gain some type of monetary benefit," Longo added.

About a third of the devices have been recovered and returned to SpaceX.

According to court documents, Rodriguez-Moya was pulled over with Starlink terminals in a truck and told police he was being paid to transport them to Newark for resale.

Police say Rodriguez-Moya does not live at the home on Roxboro Road and the people who do are not involved in this incident.

SpaceX officials say this is the largest fraud recovery the company has ever seen.

"They confirmed that this was the most significant recovery of fraudulent devices that they have had to date," Longo said.

Rodriguez-Moya is charged with receiving stolen property and trafficking stolen property.

He is currently being held in Mercer County while he waits for a detention hearing, which is scheduled for Friday.

The investigation into this case is ongoing. Anyone with information is asked to contact the police.