Parcel fires in courier packages in the UK, Poland and Germany in July were dry runs aimed at attacking flights to North America, the BBC is reporting, citing Polish prosecutors.
According to the report, Western security officials have now told US media they believe the fires were part of a campaign by Russia’s GRU military intelligence agency.
The incidents prompted the US Transportation Security Administration (TSA) and Transport Canada to implement emergency measures on air cargo from Europe on 13 September. Under the new rules, most cargo originating from Europe can only be transported on passenger aircraft where it is tendered by a Known Consignor or a shipper with an “established business relationship” with a regulated agent such as a freight forwarder or air carrier.
Four people have also been arrested in connection with the incidents.
The BBC said that Russia had denied being behind acts of sabotage but is suspected to have been behind other attacks on warehouses and railway networks in EU member states this year, including in Sweden and in the Czech Republic.
Polish prosecutor Ms Katarzyna Calow-Jaszewska was reported as saying that a group of foreign intelligence saboteurs had been involved in sending parcels containing hidden explosives and dangerous materials via courier companies. The fires broke out in a container due to be loaded on to a DHL freighter at Leipzig, at a transport company near Warsaw, and at Minworth near Birmingham. The head of Germany’s BfV domestic intelligence agency was reported as saying it was only by a stroke of fortune that the Leipzig device had not ignited in mid-air.
According to Western officials the fires originated in electric massage machines containing a magnesium-based substance. Magnesium-based fires are hard to put out.
“The group’s goal was also to test the transfer channel for such parcels, which were ultimately to be sent to the US and Canada,” Ms Calow-Jaszewska said.