VILNIUS, March 6 (Reuters) - European police agencies said on Friday that 22 people had been identified as being part of attacks involving a series of exploding parcels in Europe in 2024, which the Russian military intelligence service was suspected of being behind.
Explosions occurred in courier depots in Britain, Germany and Poland with security officials suggesting they were part of a test run for a Russian plot to trigger explosions on cargo flights to the United States.
Moscow has always denied allegations it was involved in any such operation, or other accusations of a wider sabotage campaign involving arson attacks aimed at destabilising allies of Ukraine.
'VULNERABLE' SUSPECTS
Eurojust, the European Union's justice cooperation agency, said on Friday that a joint investigation by German, Polish, Dutch, British and Lithuanian detectives had identified 22 suspects in Lithuania and Poland who were suspected of working on behalf of Russia's GRU intelligence agency.
"The suspected perpetrators were recruited from Russia, Latvia, Estonia, Lithuania and Ukraine and were often in a vulnerable socio-economic situation," the Eurojust statement said.
"It is suspected that the acts carried out by these suspects were executed on behalf of the military-intelligence service of the Russian Federation."
Russia's defence ministry, in charge of military intelligence, did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Moscow has previously denied accusations of targeting Western nations, often describing them as examples of Russophobia.
Lithuania's Deputy General Prosecutor Arturas Urbelis told a press conference that five suspects, citizens of Russia, Ukraine and Lithuania, would stand trial there accused of terrorism, facing up to 10 years in prison if found guilty.
Lithuania last year said four parcels with "self-made, explosive-incendiary charges" had been mailed from Vilnius on July 19, 2024.
One of the parcels, shipped with DHL, caught fire at Leipzig airport in eastern Germany, shortly before it was due to be loaded onto a DHL plane bound for Britain, Lithuania said.
A second parcel exploded on a DPD truck as it was crossing Poland, while the third detonated in a DHL warehouse in Birmingham, England.
The fourth parcel, which was also being transported on a DPD truck in Poland, failed to ignite due to a malfunction, investigators said. No one was injured in the incidents.
Eurojust said the investigation had also identified two ‘test packages’ that had been sent to the United States and Canada, as well as two parcels in Amsterdam intended for the same destinations.
British police said in a statement counter-terrorism officers were still investigating the Birmingham incident. Last year a Romanian man was arrested for assisting a foreign spy service and later released under investigation.
"The strength of cooperation in this case has led us to collectively identify what we believe to be Russian military intelligence involvement in a series of incidents across Europe," said Vicki Evans, Britain's Senior National Coordinator for Counter Terrorism Policing.
(Reporting by Andirus Sytas, writing by Stine Jacobsen and Michael Holden, editing by Terje Solsvik and Sharon Singleton)
