Colombian Police said on Tuesday it had detained one of its citizens wanted in Lithuania for attempting "a terror attack" on a company shipping drones to Ukraine.
“A terrorist who conducted intelligence on drones for Ukraine has been captured,” Carlos Fernando Triana Beltrán, head of the Colombian national police, said in a post on X on Tuesday.
¡𝗖𝗔𝗬𝗢́ 𝗧𝗘𝗥𝗥𝗢𝗥𝗜𝗦𝗧𝗔 𝗤𝗨𝗘 𝗛𝗔𝗖𝗜́𝗔 𝗜𝗡𝗧𝗘𝗟𝗜𝗚𝗘𝗡𝗖𝗜𝗔 𝗔 𝗗𝗥𝗢𝗡𝗘𝗦 𝗗𝗘 𝗨𝗖𝗥𝗔𝗡𝗜𝗔! En Barranquilla, en desarrollo de la ofensiva contra el multicrimen y el delito, la @PoliciaColombia, a través de la Oficina Central Nacional de @INTERPOL_HQ, hizo… pic.twitter.com/ILuxsjdqI3
— Mayor general Carlos Fernando Triana Beltrán (@DirectorPolicia) July 8, 2025
The man arrived in the northern Lithuanian town of Šiauliai from Russia on September 2, 2024, “with a mission to conduct reconnaissance”, according to the case filed cited in the Colombian Police press release on Tuesday.
“He conducted reconnaissance both inside and outside the company's facilities to determine the company's physical security systems and subsequently transmit the information gathered to the direct organisers,” the Colombian Police said.
The aim was to “prepare a terrorist attack and thereby destroying or at least damaging property, which would have had serious consequences and endangered the lives and health of Šiauliai residents”, according to the press release.
He left the country for Norway the following day on September 3.
Although the press release did not name the targeted firm, the head of the police said on X that the company was responsible for “sending unmanned devices for the war in Ukraine.”
Two Spanish nationals were arrested in November last year for attempting to set fire to a telecommunications company, which the Lithuanian authorities are also treating as attempted terrorism. They had also arrived in Lithuania in September.
In a separate case, authorities detained three people last year who were planning to destroy Ukraine-bound communications equipment stored in Šiauliai, according to the Lithuanian police. An international search was launched for other suspects.
The General Prosecutor’s Office declined to comment, saying a pre-trial investigation into the events in September last year was ongoing.
In a written comment to LRT.lt, the Prosecutor’s Office said two foreign nationals were detained in Latvia and handed over to Lithuania, adding that authorities were “identifying other persons involved in the crime.”
The accused was part of an organisation that was allegedly responsible for “terrorist attacks involving arson in Europe”, Colombian Police said, adding it was enacting an Interpol arrest warrant.
The man is now pending extradition to Lithuania, according to the press release.
Update: the article was updated with a comment from the General Prosecutor's Office.
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