Prosecutor General Nida Grunskienė has confirmed that an investigation into incendiary DHL shipments includes detainees in Lithuania, but declined to disclose how many.
“A few individuals [have been detained]. Not only in Lithuania, but several individuals have been detained specifically for committing these criminal acts,” she told reporters on Tuesday.
When asked how many people have been detained in Lithuania, Grunskienė said she could not comment on the details of the pre-trial investigation.
“I understand the public’s need for information because we’re now in a situation where people may feel unsafe,” the prosecutor said.
“However, I can assure you that the investigation is being conducted quite intensively, with the involvement of law enforcement bodies from other countries. There are arrests, but I won’t disclose how many to avoid jeopardising the investigation, both here in Lithuania and in other countries,” she added.
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According to Grunskienė, the countries involved are cooperating and sharing information.
The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reported on Monday, citing Western security officials, that the incendiary devices sent from Lithuania to Germany and the United Kingdom in July “were part of a covert Russian operation that ultimately aimed to start fires aboard cargo or passenger aircraft flying to the US and Canada”.
The devices, which were reportedly electric massagers implanted with a magnesium-based flammable substance, were sent to the UK from Lithuania and “appear to have been a test run to figure out how to get such incendiary devices aboard planes bound for North America”, according to the American newspaper.
Lithuanian law enforcement is also conducting an investigation into these incidents.
In October, Lithuanian law enforcement bodies did not comment on German media reports about a person detained in Lithuania for sending incendiary parcels.
According to the WSJ, Lithuanian police arrested a man suspected of sending four incendiary devices from a DHL parcel centre in Vilnius. He introduced himself as Igor Prudnikov, but his real name is Aleksandr Suranov.
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