The Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) have charged two men for a series of arson attacks on 5G masts.

The charges relate to a spate of arson attacks, occurring predominantly in the west Belfast area between 2023 and 2025.

Police said that a 45-year-old man has been charged with eight counts of arson and conspiracy to commit arson, while a second man, 46, has been charged with arson and conspiracy to commit arson. The identities of the two men were not revealed.

Both men were arrested on Monday (April 27) and are due to appear at Laganside Magistrates' Court on Monday, 25th May. 

"As is usual procedure, all charges will be reviewed by the Public Prosecution Service," noted the PSNI, which didn't provide any further details.

A couple of 5G masts were set alight in Belfast in June last year in the same week. Northern Ireland Fire and Rescue Service previously reported 13 incidents involving masts in the area between January 2023 and December 2024.

Attacks against 5G infrastructure were common back in 2020, fueled by misinformation online. During the height of the Coronavirus pandemic in 2020, there were several false conspiracy theories shared online suggesting that 5G was causing the spread of the virus.

It led mobile operators to urge the conspiracists to stop attacking the infrastructure and spreading misinformation on the Internet.

In 2020, a man from Liverpool, England, was sentenced to three years in jail for setting fire to a telephone mast due to his belief that 5G was linked to the Coronavirus.

In the US, a cell tower arsonist was sentenced to six and a half years in prison in 2024 for causing approximately $1.1 million worth of damage at several towers. Sean Aaron Smith, set out to "destroy the 5G towers because he hated the government and believed they were spying on him."