The fire at a DHL depot in Birmingham in July 2024<\/a> has been linked to other incidents around the continent.<\/p>\n A 38-year-old Romanian<\/a> national was arrested in the UK last year on suspicion of assisting a foreign intelligence agency. He was released but remains under investigation.<\/p>\n Deputy Assistant Commissioner Vicki Evans said Russian<\/a> military intelligence is believed to be responsible.<\/p>\n Image: Four parcels were sent from Lithuania to addresses in the United Kingdom and Poland in July 2024, a joint statement from European investigators revealed.<\/p>\n One caught fire in transit at Leipzig airport – where it was about to be loaded on to a plane, another exploded inside a truck in Poland, one was seized intact, and the other was the Birmingham incident.<\/p>\n “Test packages” were also sent to the US and Canada, while two more parcels bound for North America were intercepted in Amsterdam.<\/p>\n 22 suspects have now been identified in Lithuania and Poland suspected of working on behalf of Russian military intelligence, according to Eurojust, the judicial arm of the EU.<\/p>\n Image: Image: The agency said the alleged perpetrators were recruited and given instructions through an online messaging service.<\/p>\n Investigators said tasks were divided among several suspects, who were often rewarded with cryptocurrency payments.<\/p>\n They came from various Slavic and Baltic nations and were “often in a vulnerable socio-economic situation”, according to Eurojust.<\/p>\n Two of them now face trial, with courts expected to hear their cases later this year.<\/p>\n Image: All told, five nations took part in the investigation: the UK, Germany, the Netherlands, Poland, and Lithuania.<\/p>\n Read more: DAC Evans said: “The strength of cooperation in this case has led us to collectively identify what we believe to be Russian military intelligence involvement in a series of incidents across Europe.<\/p>\n “Our investigation is ongoing, and we continue to liaise closely with partners to ensure we’re doing all we can to keep the sector, and the public safe.<\/p>\n “We have been clear and open about the increasing levels of demand we’re seeing relating to the activity of foreign states here in the UK.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Russian intelligence is suspected of being behind several “self igniting” air freight fires around Europe, including one in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":461078,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[59,57,58,50,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-461077","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-united-kingdom","tag-gb","tag-great-britain","tag-greatbritain","tag-news","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/461077","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=461077"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/461077\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/461078"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=461077"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=461077"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=461077"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/skynews-russia-arson_7184383.jpg\")
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\n A self-igniting parcel burns. Pic: @Eurojust<\/p>\n![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/skynews-fire-arson-russia-leipzig_7184413.jpg\")
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\n A self-igniting parcel at Leipzig airport. Pic: @Eurojust<\/p>\n![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/skynews-fire-arson-russia-leipzig_7184412.jpg\")
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\n A self-igniting parcel at Leipzig airport. Pic: @Eurojust<\/p>\n![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/skynews-fire-arson-russia_7184415.jpg\")
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\n A self-igniting parcel burns in a lorry. Pic: @Eurojust<\/p>\n
Trafficking crackdown rescues child kidnapped for their organs<\/a>
‘Russian shadow fleet’ tanker seized in North Sea raid<\/a><\/p>\n