The Prosecutor General’s Office and the Lithuanian Criminal Police Bureau uncovered a group of individuals who organized and planned to carry out four terrorist attacks in various European countries.
This was reported by LRT.
Within the framework of the pre-trial investigation, it was established that on 19 July 2024, Lithuanian citizen A. Š., acting together with accomplices, used the international delivery and transport services of DHL and DPD and sent from Vilnius to different European countries 4 parcels containing improvised incendiary explosive devices.
Two parcels were sent by DHL cargo planes to the United Kingdom, and two more — by DPD trucks to Poland.
On 20 July 2024 at 05:45, the first parcel exploded and ignited at Leipzig Airport (Germany) just before loading onto a DHL plane bound on the Vilnius–Leipzig–United Kingdom route.
The second parcel exploded and caught fire in a DPD truck in Poland on 21 July at 02:15.
The third parcel exploded and ignited at a DHL warehouse in Birmingham (United Kingdom) on 22 July at 03:36.
The fourth parcel, transported by DPD road freight through Poland, failed to detonate due to a malfunction in the detonation mechanism.
The investigation established that the powerful incendiary improvised explosive devices were operated by electronic timers hidden inside massage pillows. Additional mixtures of flammable substances to enhance the incendiary effect were placed in tubes from hygiene and cosmetic products. Thermite — a substance with industrial and military applications and an extremely high burning temperature — was used for the damaging effect.
A joint investigative team was set up within Eurojust, in which law-enforcement and intelligence agencies of Lithuania, Poland, the United Kingdom, Germany, the Netherlands, Latvia, Estonia, the USA and Canada closely cooperate.
The investigation determined that the organization and coordination of these crimes were carried out by citizens of the Russian Federation with ties to Russian military intelligence.
It is noted that several coordinators of the crimes are directly connected with the attempted terrorist attack on 9 May 2024 in Vilnius, when a shopping centre IKEA was set on fire. These include Ukrainian citizen Danylo Hromov, who also uses the personal data of Russian citizen Yaroslav Mykhailov; and Tomas Dovhan Stabachinskas, who holds citizenships of Lithuania and the Russian Federation.
During the preparation of the attacks, other citizens of Lithuania, Russia, Latvia, Estonia and Ukraine were also involved in specific tasks. They were recruited through acquaintances, maintained contact via Telegram, offered rewards and paid in cryptocurrency.
The group operated in an organized manner, maintaining strict secrecy and splitting tasks: transporting parcels and flammable substances, transferring them to other participants, hiding them in caches, activating devices, etc., were entrusted to different executors, who often were not connected with each other.
In total, over 30 searches were conducted in Lithuania, Poland, Latvia and Estonia. During complex investigative actions, explosive substances hidden in canned goods as well as detonators were seized from illegal circulation.
At this stage of the pre-trial investigation, a total of 15 suspects — citizens of the Russian Federation, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia and Ukraine — have been charged with organizing and preparing the mentioned crimes.
