Starlink: Five Men Arrested for Unlicensed Space Tech
The suspects, Polite Jamba (28), Ngoni Mandiwo (29), Denver Ndebele (26), Tinotenda Vambe (26), and Lennin Mhiripiri (26), are set to make their court debut on Monday.
Starlink: Five Men Arrested for Unlicensed Space Tech
In a plot twist that could rival a sci-fi thriller, five Harare men have found themselves in hot water for possessing Starlink kits without the necessary licences. The suspects, Polite Jamba (28), Ngoni Mandiwo (29), Denver Ndebele (26), Tinotenda Vambe (26), and Lennin Mhiripiri (26), are set to make their court debut on Monday.
According to a police report, detectives from the Criminal Investigations Department (CID) Highlands, acting on a tip-off, swooped in on the suspects on Saturday, November 2, 2024. The scene was straight out of a detective novel, with the officers finding the men in possession of Starlink kits, which are apparently as illegal as they are high-tech.
The drama unfolded at shop number 1 Easy Walk Mall in the CBD, where Ndebele and Mandiwo were allegedly peddling their space-age wares. The detectives, perhaps channeling their inner Sherlock Holmes, found two Starlink Gen 2 kits valued at a cool US$900. The duo was promptly arrested and whisked away to CID Highlands for further questioning.
Starlink: Five Men Arrested for Unlicensed Space Tech
But the story doesn't end there. On the same day, Jamba, Vambe, and Mhiripiri were nabbed in a sting operation that could make any undercover cop proud. The detectives, posing as potential buyers, caught the trio with a Starlink Mini kit worth US$450. They too were escorted to CID Highlands, adding to the day's haul of unlicensed space tech.
The police national spokesperson was unavailable for comment, possibly busy dealing with the fallout of this interstellar incident. Meanwhile, the government has issued a stern reminder to anyone with unlicensed Starlink kits to regularise their equipment with authorised resellers like Aura Group and TelOne.
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Starlink, the brainchild of US billionaire Elon Musk's SpaceX, officially beamed its signal into Zimbabwe on September 7, 2024. While the service promises to bring high-speed internet to even the most remote corners of the globe, it seems some enterprising individuals in Harare got a bit too eager to join the space race.
