Poland’s national prosecutor’s office has confirmed four arrests in the case of DHL packages “containing explosives” which were sent to countries including Germany. The Polish government openly accused Russian secret services of having orchestrated the attacks, which were intended to ultimately reach the United States and Canada.
Russia suspected. Poland announced on Monday that it had arrested four people in connection with the affair of DHL parcels booby-trapped with explosives. Indeed, last July, a fire was started when a package caught fire in a DHL warehouse in Birmingham (central England). A similar case took place in Germany, also in July. British and German intelligence services then suspected Russia of being behind these attacks.
A suspicion shared by the Polish government which openly accused the Russian secret services of having orchestrated the attacks and of having tried to do the same on Polish soil in recent days. According to investigators’ findings, the group allegedly sent packages containing hidden explosives and other dangerous materials to fake recipients in EU member states and to Canada and the United States, whose packages transited via British airports. The packages were prepared in such a way that they could ignite or explode autonomously when in flight or transported by truck.
a test phase
These parcel bomb attacks were not simple attacks. Indeed, they would also have aimed to test the routing of cargoes containing explosives en route between Europe and North America, in order to recognize transit points and journey times, reports CargoForwarder.
A thesis confirmed by Polish prosecutor Katarzyna Calow-Jaszewska who declared that the objective was “to test the transfer channel of these packages, which were ultimately to be sent to the United States of America and Canada”, reports SkyNews.
For its part, Russia has denied any involvement. Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova told state news agency RIA Novosti that Poland’s accusation and its decision to close the consulate was “another hostile move”, which, she promised, would provoke “a painful response.”
Canada
