Turkish police detained 85 people in raids across 30 provinces on Tuesday in an investigation into an İstanbul-based crime group suspected of involvement in an arson attack on a Starlink satellite internet ground station in Poland, Turkish Minute reported on October 27. The operation, coordinated by İstanbul prosecutors, targeted the Daltonlar (Daltons) and followed the September 23 fire at the station in Wola Krobowska, south of Warsaw.
Key facts
- 85 people detained across 30 provinces, 35 of them minors, according to the state-run Anadolu news agency as cited by Turkish Minute.
- Police describe one recruitment chain: an approach on social media, then a WhatsApp group that issued attack instructions. Turkish Minute gives no figure for how many planned attacks the raids pre-empted.
- The September 23 fire damaged the power supply and generator at Wola Krobowska. No one was injured and the station resumed operations.
- Two Turkish citizens were arrested in Germany on October 12 on European warrants issued at Poland’s request; Polish prosecutors charged them on October 16 with sabotage and working for a foreign intelligence service.
What a Starlink ground station does
Starlink, the satellite internet service operated by Elon Musk’s SpaceX, cannot work on satellites alone. A gateway site such as Wola Krobowska is the handover point between the spacecraft overhead and the terrestrial internet: an array of dishes, plus power and fibre, that lifts customer traffic to passing satellites and drops it back into the fixed network. Because satellites in view can pass traffic to other gateways and to each other over laser links, damage to one site reduces regional capacity rather than switching service off — the reason an attack on a single building rarely shows up as a blackout for users. That is how Starlink’s ground network carries traffic, and Turkish Minute reports no effect on customers beyond the damaged power supply and generator.
Why Poland is treating it as sabotage
Tomasz Siemoniak, the minister overseeing Poland’s intelligence services, has blamed “Russian intelligence” for the attack, according to Turkish Minute. Starlink is used by Ukraine’s military to communicate and coordinate operations during Russia’s invasion, which began in February 2022. Musk has separately raised the possibility of Russia attacking Starlink satellites in orbit; this case concerns the equipment on the ground.
The German arrests
Ümit E., 38, and Müslüm T., 34, as named by Turkish Minute, were taken into custody on October 12 in Nürtingen, near Stuttgart in south-western Germany. A German court ordered on October 13 that both be held pending transfer to Poland. The ABW, Poland’s Internal Security Agency, announced on October 16 that prosecutors accuse the pair of “sabotage” and of acting “for a foreign intelligence service.”
Their suspected links to the Daltonlar surfaced through reporting by Der Spiegel and ARD, the German public broadcaster. ARD found that attributing membership to the group is complicated: alliances shift, local offshoots appear, and other people trade on the group’s name.
Who the Daltonlar are
Named after the Dalton brothers in the “Lucky Luke” comics, the Daltonlar is one of several youth-dominated criminal networks that recruit online and publicise weapons and attacks on social media, with activity extending from Turkey into Europe. Turkish prosecutors have linked it to murders, armed attacks, extortion and drug trafficking, and believe it is directed from Russia by its alleged leader, Beratcan Gökdemir, who uses the name “Can Dalton” and is the subject of an INTERPOL Red Notice. The 35 minors among Tuesday’s detainees match the recruitment pattern police describe.
What is not settled
Turkish Minute does not say whether any of the 85 people detained in Turkey are accused of taking part in the Wola Krobowska fire itself or face charges over separate planned attacks, and it gives no timetable for the transfer of the two men from Germany. It reports no response from SpaceX or from Russian authorities to the Polish allegations. This account rests on Turkish Minute’s reporting; the Anadolu, Der Spiegel, ARD and ABW material it cites has not been independently reviewed here. Nothing in it points to a change in Starlink pricing, plans, coverage or availability in Poland, Zimbabwe or elsewhere. We will update this story if Polish or Turkish prosecutors publish charges naming the ground station attack, or if SpaceX comments.
Frequently Asked Questions
Has the man Turkish investigators call the Daltonlar leader been handed over to Turkey?
No. According to Turkish Minute, Beratcan Gökdemir, who uses the name “Can Dalton” and is wanted under an INTERPOL Red Notice, was detained in Russia in 2024 but was not extradited despite Turkey’s requests.
Have Turkish courts already convicted members of this group?
Yes. Turkish Minute reports that an İstanbul court sentenced senior figures Bahadır Akdağ and Zafer Boyun to 12 life terms each in December 2025, in a case involving 362 defendants.
Did Russian intelligence direct the Daltonlar in this case?
The reporting does not link the two directly. Turkish Minute reports no evidence that Russian services tasked the Daltonlar with the arson; the claim that the gang is run from Russia and the Polish government’s attribution of the fire to Russian intelligence come from separate parts of the story.
Has Turkey taken action against the group’s finances?
Yes. Turkish Minute reports that Turkey froze assets belonging to 399 suspects in a Daltonlar investigation announced in August 2026. That action was separate from Tuesday’s detentions.
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