The Russian military intelligence was to involve “disposable agents” who put incendiary charges in packages sent via the German company DHL – on Wednesday, the daily “Sueddeutsche Zeitung” and public broadcaster WDR and NDR report, citing investigators and own journalistic investigations.
On July 20, 2024, the DHL package caught fire at the airport in Leipzig. A container fire occurred. At that time, the police decided that the reason was probably a technical fault. However, the day later another package lights up in Jabłonów near Warsaw. And the next day the package burns in a logistics center near Birmingham.
In DHL, it began to doubt if it could be a regular coincidence. The concern employee informed the police about some similarities: at least two packages were sent to Lithuania, using the same Russian e-mail address-reports “Sueddeutsche Zeitung” in the online edition.
“It is also said that the content of packages is identical: they were neck massage devices,” we read.
Investigations in several countries
According to information The media at the end of July last year began the British anti -terrorist services, and soon after the case is examined by the German Federal Criminal Police Office (BKA), suspected of sabotage at the request Russia. At the end of August 2024, the German Federal Prosecutor General decided that the sabotage could have occurred, and BKA initiated an investigation into the cryptonym “Mercurius” (or Mercury). Suspected parcels were also examined in Polandin Lithuania, Great Britain, USA and Canada.
“Two of these packages were to be sent from Lithuania to Polandand two others were to be sent from Lithuania to Great Britain. One of the packages sent to London stood in flames when a stop in Leipzig. One of the two packages to Poland was captured by investigators. These four packages contained magnesium -based ignition devices” – we read on the portal of German public television ARD.
Two more parcels did not give up investigators. At the beginning of August 2024, a man sent one package from Warsaw to the USA and the other to Canada. This time, however, without an incendiary. According to the findings of the investigation, it contained sports shoes, T -shirts and alleged transmitter. Poland The prosecutor's office believes that the group wanted to check “the transport trail for such shipments” – inform the media.
Search in Germany
As part of the “Sueddeutsche Zeitung”, NDR and WDR, the system of clients and contractors of sabotage acts was tried to reconstruct. According to the findings, the European security authorities assume that the operation of about ten people was involved in the operation. “Journalists Several suspects were identified in a confidential investigation. Among them are high -ranking suspicious employees, “writes tagesschau.de.
One of the clues will lead to the Ukrainian one of the large cities in eastern Germany. In February, the police searched his home. He was to be in contact with a man accused of sending packages in Lithuania containing incendiary devices. The Ukrainian did not personally know this man. He told journalists from WDR, NDR and “Sz” that a friend asked him to write to this Lithuanian via a telegram that the package was lost. He doesn't know what this message was for. He never had anything to do with a real package. The Ukrainian is not considered the accused.
A Russian is also wanted, who was to recruit on the internet of a 27-year-old Ukrainian from Katowice. The latter has already been arrested. In April 2023, he was sentenced in Poland in April 2023 to two years and ten months in prison for money laundering and internet fraud. However, because in the summer of 2024 the judgment was not yet final, he was at the wild then – we read.
Investigators believe that he was part of the sabotage operation. He was to transport by car Packages, activate temporary fuse and transfer them to Lithuanian Lithuanian Aleksander S., which was first informed by “Wyborcza”. S. then sent two uninsured packages under a false name to fictitious personal or company addresses in London and Birmingham. In addition, two packages were to be sent via DPD courier to Poland – reports tagesschau.de.
“One -off agents” Gru
The men were quickly arrested and are accused of participating in sabotage activities carried out by the Russian state. But the media define them with “disposable agents” who are not official employees of the services. Such people are often recruited through social channels and messengers, such as a telegram. They are to perform a small task for a small amount of money. According to the findings, “Russia has been using this method more and more often for several years, because hundreds of professional spies had to leave the embassies after the start of Russian aggression on Ukraine,” we read. It also serves to hide real perpetrators.
However, investigators were also to be identified by people who planned sabotage. Russian Aleksandr B. was arrested in Bosnia and Herzegovina at the end of 2024. According to local police He was suspected of training Moldovans in the Balkans for protests in their homeland. In February he was extradited to Poland. The Polish prosecutor's office accuses him of “coordinating sabotage acts”, which included sending courier packages containing incendiary materials.
“According to the Western intelligence services, Sabotage operations were also involved in the high -ranking GRU employees: one of the suspects is colonel Gru Denis Smoljani. social media ” – says tagesschau.de. According to the media, he was also supposed to analyze possible sabotage acts, aimed at aviation traffic.
The article comes from the website Deutsche Welle