Court begins reviewing recordings in DHL incendiary parcel case

Vilnius Regional Court has begun reviewing video and audio recordings in the case involving incendiary parcels sent through DHL and DPD, LRT reported on Monday.

One video shows a burning shipment being removed from a warehouse with a forklift. It is taken some distance from the warehouse, after which a person approaches with a hose and extinguishes the fire. Other recordings show people walking near buildings and getting into cars. Another video shows a man packing a parcel.

Five people are charged in the case: Aleksandras Shuranovas, Daniilas Jencius, Vasilijus Kovach, Vadymas Borsukas and Eldaras Salmanovas. The defendants are citizens of Ukraine, Lithuania and Russia. They are accused of organising and planning terrorist acts in different countries as members of an organised terrorist group. They were detained in Lithuania and other countries.

According to the pretrial investigation, on July 19, 2024, a Lithuanian citizen working with accomplices used the international parcel delivery and transport services of DHL and DPD to send four parcels from Vilnius containing homemade explosive and 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, triggered by a pre-programmed electronic timer, 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 on the Vilnius-Leipzig-United Kingdom route. The second caught fire overnight on July 21 inside 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 overnight. The fourth parcel, transported by DPD road freight, did not catch fire because of a device malfunction and was intercepted by officers. Examination established the mechanism of the explosive and incendiary device and assessed its potential danger.

The indictment says the devices were concealed in parcels containing shoulder massagers and body-care products. All five defendants have pleaded not guilty.

According to officers, the defendants being tried in Vilnius were operatives and intermediaries, while the organisers of the crime are in Russia and remain beyond reach. Investigators established that the crimes were organised by the Main Intelligence Directorate of Russia’s armed forces.

The case was separated from a large and complex investigation by Lithuania’s Criminal Police Bureau. That investigation has so far identified at least 16 citizens of different countries who organised, planned or helped carry out terrorist crimes in various countries.

According to the investigation, citizens of Russia, Latvia, Estonia, Lithuania and Ukraine were recruited for individual tasks. They were often socially vulnerable people contacted through personal connections or recruitment networks, with communication maintained through Telegram and payment offered and made in cryptocurrency.