Western officials suspect Russia was behind a plot to plant incendiary packages on cargo planes

WARSAW, Poland — Western security officials suspect Russian intelligence was behind a plot to plant incendiary devices in packages on cargo planes bound for North America, including one that caught fire at a courier center from Germany and another that caught fire in a warehouse in England.

Poland said last month it had arrested four people suspected of being linked to a foreign intelligence operation that carried out the sabotage and was looking for two others. Lithuania’s Prosecutor General, Nida Grunskiene, said on Tuesday that there were an unspecified number of people detained in several countries, without giving details.

The events come as Western officials say they see an escalation aa Russia’s sabotage hybrid war targeting Ukraine’s allies, including election disinformation and arson attacks in Europe this year. Several officials have said they believe the attacks were the work of Russia’s military intelligence, the GRU, although Moscow has denied involvement.

Poland’s Internal Security Agency, or ABW, says incidents in Poland, as well as other EU and NATO members, have increased this year. ABW believes that they are initiated and coordinated by Russian special services. So far, 20 people have been charged in the investigations led by the prosecutor’s office, ABW and the police.

Polish prosecutor Katarzyna Calów-Jaszewska said the investigation is focused on foreign agents carrying out acts of sabotage, including damaging industrial facilities or critical infrastructure such as airports, planes and other vehicles, as well as arson using fuel packages sent to EU and UK countries that would ignite during road or air transport.

She added that the group was testing a channel to send such packages to the United States and Canada.

The Wall Street Journal first reported the details of the cargo plane incidents.

The US Transportation Security Administration said it has implemented additional security measures in recent months for certain shipments of goods bound for the United States.

“We continually adjust our security posture as appropriate and promptly share any and all relevant information with our industry partners to include requirements and recommendations that help them reduce risk,” TSA said.

Dirk Heinrichs, a DHL spokesman in Germany, said in an emailed statement to The Associated Press that the company could not provide details on the matter, but “is cooperating fully with the relevant authorities to protect our people, our customers’ network and transports. .”

The head of Britain’s domestic intelligence agency, MI5, said last month that the UK was experiencing a “staggering increase” in attempted assassinations, sabotage and other crimes on its soil from Russia, as well as Iran.

Calów-Jaszewska said on October 25 that packages with camouflaged explosives were sent via freight companies to EU countries and the UK to “test the transfer channel for such packages” which were eventually destined for the US and Canada .

Incendiary devices in Germany and Britain both ignited in July.

One was at a stopover at a DHL logistics center at an airport in the city of Leipzig, according to Thomas Haldenwang, the head of Germany’s intelligence service. German news agency dpa reported that the connecting flight containing the package, which came from one of the Baltic nations, was delayed in Leipzig and was on the ground when it caught fire and set fire to a cargo container.

British counter-terrorism police are investigating whether Russian agents were behind an incendiary device in a package that caught fire at a DHL warehouse in Minworth, near Birmingham, central England, on July 22. The incident, first reported by the Guardian newspaper and German broadcasters, was similar to the one in Germany.

Polish newspaper Gazeta Wyborcza also reported that a fire was reported in a courier truck near Warsaw.

“We are observing aggressive actions by the Russian intelligence services. In particular, Russian espionage and sabotage in Germany is increasing, both quantitatively and qualitatively,” Haldenwang told the German Budestag, or parliament, last month while discussing the Leipzig incident.

“The activities of Russian intelligence services in the real world as well as in cyberspace show that Germany is at the center of this Russian hybrid war against Western democracies,” he added. “Russia is using its entire toolkit: from influencing political discussions in Germany to cyber attacks against critical infrastructure and sabotage. Russia’s willingness to use force demonstrates that it is also willing to put human lives at risk.”

In a rare public speech outlining the major threats to the UK, MI5 director-general Ken McCallum said “the GRU in particular has a sustained mission to wreak havoc on the streets of Britain and Europe: we have seen fires, sabotage and more. Dangerous actions carried out with increasing recklessness.”

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov on Tuesday called media reports of the alleged sabotage plot an example of “vague fabrication.”

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Associated Press writers Jill Lawless and Danica Kirka in London, Dasha Litvinova in Tallinn, Estonia, Kirsten Grieshaber in Berlin and Liudas Dapkus in Vilnius, Lithuania contributed.