UK, Lithuania and Latvia detain people over allegations of arson and spying for Russia

VILNIUS, Lithuania (AP) – British, Lithuanian and Latvian authorities have detained several people on suspicion of carrying out intelligence-related activities on behalf of Russia in the latest of a string of incidents to be linked to Moscow by Western officials.

London’s Metropolitan Police force said Thursday that they arrested three people just east of London on suspicion of spying for Russia. On Wednesday, Lithuanian prosecutors said that they uncovered and detained a Russia-linked network of suspects who are alleged to have planned and organized arson attacks in various European countries. Meanwhile, Latvia’s security service said it detained a man suspected of passing intelligence about the military to Russia.

British police said they arrested two men, ages 41 and 46, and a 35-year-old woman in the county of Essex. They searched two addresses and later released the suspects on bail.

Lithuania’s prosecutor general office said that suspects in a separate case are accused of sending packages containing homemade explosive devices to other European Union countries and Britain via courier services, on behalf of Russia’s military intelligence services. The highly flammable incendiary devices with timed detonators were hidden inside vibrating massage cushions and tubes of cosmetics.

European security officials have previously warned that a widespread sabotage campaign blamed on Russia is growing more dangerous. The alleged espionage and plots to use explosives are among around 80 incidents linked to Russia that The Associated Press has documented since Moscow’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine on Feb. 24, 2022.

They include at least 18 incidents of espionage and 18 cases of arson or serious sabotage, including attacks on restaurants, warehouses and shopping centers as well as a plot to assassinate the CEO of a German arms company.

Dominic Murphy, head of the Counter Terrorism Command at the Metropolitan Police, said that the U.K. is seeing an “increasing number of who we would describe as ‘proxies’ being recruited by foreign intelligence services.”

In July, British men recruited online by Russian intelligence were found guilty of setting fire to a warehouse containing supplies for Ukraine – part of a growing trend where Russia’s security services hire people through messaging platforms such as Telegram.

Lithuanian authorities said a total of 15 people – citizens of Russia, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia and Ukraine – are suspected of organizing and carrying out the alleged arson attacks. Their statement said an international arrest warrant has been issued for three people, but didn’t make clear if and how many people had been arrested.

The investigation found that the packages contained thermite – a highly explosive substance used for industrial and military purposes.

Prosecutors say the packages were sent by a Lithuanian citizen on July, 19 2024. Two shipments were sent from Vilnius to the U.K. by DHL cargo planes, and the other two were sent to Poland by DPD trucks.

One of them caught fire at the DHL logistics center in Leipzig on July 20, just before it was loaded onto a DHL cargo plane to the U.K. Another shipment to Britain caught fire in the early hours of July 22 at a DHL warehouse in the city of Birmingham, England.

In Poland, a shipment caught fire on a DPD freight truck on July 21, while another DPD shipment didn’t ignite because of a technical failure, which prevented the explosive device from detonating.

The Lithuanian prosecutor general’s office said that two of the people detained were also involved in an arson attack on an IKEA store in the capital, Vilnius, on May 9, 2024. It said one of the men is a Ukrainian citizen who also uses the identity of a Russian citizen, while the other is a dual Lithuanian-Russian national.

During the investigation, more than 30 searches were carried out in Lithuania, Poland, Latvia, and Estonia, during which further incendiary devices were found. The authorities suspect that the devices could have been used to plan and carry out further attacks.

Lithuanian authorities said that because of the “extremely dangerous” acts, a joint investigation team was created, with the cooperation of law enforcement and intelligence officers from nine countries, including the U.S. and Canada.

Also on Wednesday, the Latvian State Security Service said that it had detained a man on suspicion of collecting information about Latvian military sites and passing the information to Russia’s intelligence services.

In a statement, it said the man provided Russian intelligence with information about NATO troops based in the country, training exercises and the construction of “new military objects.”

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Kirsten Grieshaber in Berlin, and Pan Pylas in London, contributed to this report.