Fires at cargo warehouses in Birmingham, United Kingdom, and Leipzig, Germany, caused by incendiary devices hidden in packages may have been part of a larger plan to target aircraft bound for the United States (US) and Canada.
Russia is suspected of being involved in the plot to smuggle incendiary devices from Lithuania into the UK and Germany with the plan to target North America further in the future.
The fires in Birmingham and Germany both broke out in July 2024, while stored in warehouses and had previously been transported on DHL cargo planes, according to the Wall Street Journal.
It is understood that the package in Leipzig was also destined for the UK with both parcels due to be delivered to Birmingham addresses.
“The group’s goal was also to test the transfer channel for such parcels, which were ultimately to be sent to the United States of America and Canada,” Poland’s National Prosecutor’s Office said after arresting four suspects linked to the fires.
Pawel Szota, head of Poland’s spy agency, said he was not sure Russian leaders were “aware of the consequences if one of these packages exploded, causing a mass casualty event”.
The Wall Street Journal also reported that the devices were planted in electric massagers along with a magnesium-based flammable substance.
“These are traditional unsubstantiated insinuations from the media,” said Russian spokesperson Dmitry Peskov in response to the accusations.
Efforts to discover the circumstances behind the fires are a multi-national intelligence operation with spy agencies across Europe involved.
A senior official in the US told the Washington Post that there are “no current active threats involving U.S.-bound flights”.
The consequences of such devices going off midflight are not clear but Thomas Haldenwang, head of the Germany’s domestic intelligence agency, suggested that they could have caused a crash.
European security services are working towards locating two more suspects allegedly involved with the smuggling operation.
5 comments
Who has the motivation? Who has a LONG track tecord of deadly attacks inside member nations of NATO?? Who has the wherewithall and technology? Kinda “duh”.
Great questions that would turn this article to be more informative. Attribution, provenance and motivation would be great. As always unfortunately those will be kept as secret for many years to come. The public will learn much much later. Hope that Lithuanian and European authorities will investigate this very closely and further accidents will be prevented in the future. My deepest condolences to the family of the pilot that died in the crash.
Magnesium is used in road side flares and Veri pistols . What triggered the fires ? Spontaneous combustion ?
Were any of those incendiary devices tested for radioactive compounds?
It may not be as sinister as it seems, I worked for an International shipping company. When the government advice changed on how many Lithium Batteries could be sent in the same parcel, what alcohol based products ie perfumes nail varnish etc and volumes as a customer service agent that advised customers I had to pass a test so show I was competent to give advice regarding the restrictions that should be applied.
The customer service agents in all the depots were given a 20 min slot off the phones to complete it, the majority failed !!. So next time they were all given the answers by Managers so duly passed.