Defendant says he did not know incendiary parcels served terrorist group

One of the defendants in the case involving incendiary DHL parcels, Daniilas Jencius, told Vilnius Regional Court that he understood he might be acting unlawfully while carrying out instructions from a man he met in Russia, but did not know he was serving the purposes of a terrorist group, LRT reports.

“I acknowledge the circumstances of the case, but I did not know that I was acting for the purposes of a terrorist group. I did not know that my actions would lead to such consequences,” Jencius said on Monday.

The court is continuing its examination of the case, in which five people have been charged with acting as part of a terrorist group.

Jencius said he realised he might be committing a crime while carrying out tasks given to him by the man he met in the Russian city of Kaliningrad. However, he said he had been in a situation where he needed to earn money.

“Because my financial situation was difficult and I was the sole provider for my family, I agreed to carry out the task,” the defendant said.

Jencius recalled travelling to Kaliningrad, where he posted an online advertisement saying that he was looking for work. A man contacted him and they met in the city.

“The man was large, bearded and bald. He said that tasks would need to be carried out, spoke Russian and introduced himself as Tomas,” Jencius recalled.

The man gave him money, asked him to travel to Lithuania, buy SIM cards and hide them. Jencius said he bought the cards in Lithuania and drove to an animal cemetery to hide them, as instructed.

“But I could not find the grave he had indicated. Then I went to the zoo, found the place he had indicated, dug a hole and hid the SIM cards in it,” Jencius said.

The five defendants are Aleksandras Shuranovas, Daniilas Jencius, Vasilijus Kovacas, Vadymas Borsukas and Eldaras Salmanovas. They are citizens of Ukraine, Lithuania and Russia.

The men are accused of organising and planning terrorist attacks in different countries while operating as part of an organised terrorist group. They were detained in Lithuania and other countries.

According to the pre-trial investigation, on July 19, 2024, a Lithuanian citizen, acting with accomplices, used the international parcel delivery and transport services of DHL and DPD to send four parcels from Vilnius containing homemade explosive-incendiary devices.

Two parcels were addressed to the United Kingdom and sent by DHL cargo aircraft. The other two were addressed to Poland and transported by DPD cargo trucks.

The first parcel detonated and caught fire at Leipzig Airport early on July 20, shortly before it was due to be loaded onto a DHL cargo aircraft operating the Vilnius Leipzig United Kingdom route. The second caught fire during the night of July 21 in a DPD cargo truck travelling through Poland.

The parcel that reached the United Kingdom caught fire about a day later at a DHL warehouse in Birmingham, also during the night. The fourth parcel, transported by DPD road freight, did not catch fire because of a malfunction in the device and was intercepted by officers.

Investigators established the mechanism of the explosive-incendiary devices and assessed the potential danger after examining the intercepted parcel. The indictment says the devices were hidden in parcels containing shoulder massagers and body-care products.

All the defendants have pleaded not guilty. According to law enforcement officials, those on trial in Vilnius were executors and intermediaries, while the organisers of the crimes are in Russia and cannot be reached.