Two out of four shipments with incendiary devices were sent via DHL: one caught fire in Germany, at Leipzig airport, the other caught fire in a warehouse in the United Kingdom.
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“After conducting the investigation, we found that both shipments were sent from Vilnius. All information collected during the investigation was handed over to Lithuania,” said P. Baueris, responsible for safety at DHL.
He told the court how the shipments are marked and how they are transported. He confirmed that the exact location of each shipment in the container is recorded. Once the fire source is identified, it is possible to find out which shipments were in that location. There were 140 shipments in the container.
He admitted that the safety measures used before those events were insufficient. Although shipments are checked by X-rays, the incendiary devices went unnoticed. After the mentioned events, safety rules were tightened.
“We were lucky that the plane was delayed. It was supposed to take off at 5:30 a.m., and the incendiary device activated at 5:43 a.m.,” said the DHL representative.
According to him, if the fire had started on the flying plane, the consequences would have been much more severe. The shipment caught fire just before it was loaded onto the aircraft.
As BNS wrote, charges related to incendiary devices sent abroad via parcel services have been brought against Lithuanian citizen Aleksandras Šuranovas, Ukrainian citizens Vadym Borsuk and Vasiliy Kovach, Daniil Yents, who holds dual Russian and Lithuanian citizenship, and Russian citizen Eldar Salmanov.
They are accused of a terrorist act and participation in an organized terrorist group whose goal is to commit terrorist crimes. Their ages range from 23 to 69 years.
As BNS wrote earlier, in July 2024, four shipments were sent from Lithuania to the United Kingdom and Poland.
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Two shipments arrived by air transport at a sorting center in Germany, where they were distributed for further transportation. One of them caught fire at Leipzig airport just before being loaded onto the plane, the second caught fire in a warehouse in the UK.
The shipment delivered to Poland caught fire in the truck transporting it, the fourth shipment, transported by DPD cargo land transport, did not catch fire due to a device malfunction and was seized by officials. Upon examination, the device mechanism was identified and the danger assessed.
According to the indictment, the fire in the UK caused nearly 400 thousand euros in damage, in Germany – 126 thousand euros, in Poland – nearly 62 thousand euros.
According to officials, the accused are executors, intermediaries, while the crime organizers are in Russia and currently unreachable. It was established that the crimes were organized by the Main Intelligence Directorate (GRU) of the Russian Armed Forces. All defendants in the case deny guilt.
According to the indictment, the shipments with incendiary devices were sent from Lithuania by Lithuanian citizen A. Šuranovas, who used false identity data.
The criminal case is separated from another investigation, in which at least 16 citizens of various countries have been identified as organizing, planning, and contributing to terrorist crimes in different countries.
Law enforcement agencies of Lithuania, Poland, the Netherlands, Germany, and the United Kingdom, acting in a joint investigation team coordinated by Eurojust, stopped planned attacks in Europe using self-igniting shipments and identified persons who planned and carried out the crimes.
During the mentioned investigation, it was found that the crimes were organized and their implementation coordinated by persons connected to and associated with Russian military intelligence services.
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This case was handed over to the court at the beginning of March.
