Poland: parcel-IED arson pattern across logistics chain tied to Russian sabotage probe

In July 2024, incendiary devices concealed in courier parcels ignited at logistics hubs across the European delivery chain. A device disguised among cosmetics, a massage pillow and other consumer goods caught fire at a DHL freight centre at Leipzig/Halle Airport in Germany; German authorities later said only a delay to the cargo flight prevented the fire from breaking out in the air. On 22 July a similar parcel ignited at a DHL warehouse in Minworth, near Birmingham in the United Kingdom. Investigators traced the shipments to parcels mailed from Vilnius, Lithuania, in mid-July, containing timer-controlled incendiary devices built around a magnesium-based flammable compound.

Polish prosecutors opened an investigation in August 2024 on information from the Internal Security Agency (ABW), and by late October 2024 had announced the arrest of four people, with two more sought, over parcels containing camouflaged incendiary and dangerous materials sent via courier firms to EU countries and the UK that ignited or detonated during land and air transport. Prosecutor Katarzyna Calów-Jaszewska said the group had "tested a channel for sending such parcels to the United States and Canada," describing the European fires as a trial run for parcels ultimately bound for North America. Authorities said the suspects were directed by a foreign intelligence service and charged them with sabotage of a terrorist character; further indictments followed.

Polish authorities assess this as one of the most dangerous disclosed instances of foreign-directed sabotage on Polish soil, marking an escalation from property arson toward potential aviation disaster. The plot's structure, parcels mailed from Vilnius, igniting in German and British DHL hubs, with documented test shipments toward the US and Canada, points to a coordinated trial run for attacks on transatlantic cargo aircraft. Western officials and the prosecutors attribute the operation to Russian military intelligence (GRU) using recruited low-level operatives; attribution remains an allegation, and Moscow has denied involvement.