A Russian spy chief has been identified as one of the suspected masterminds behind a parcel-bomb attack on US-bound flights which sparked a fire at a DHL depot in Brimingham.
Last year, officials feared that Russia was attempting to plant bombs on passenger planes flying to the US and Canada.
It came after electronic massagers began to explode in warehouses across Europe.
Two incendiary devices were shipped via DHL logistic centres in Birmingham and Leipzig in Germany, resulting in fires.
It is now believed a Russian military intelligence officer may have been the mastermind behind a sabotage plot, The Times reported.
Four people were arrested in connection with the blaze in Birmingham and charged with participating in sabotage or terrorist operations on behalf of a foreign intelligence agency.
No injuries were reported, with the incident dealt with by staff and the local fire brigade, but investigators believe there could have been far more serious consequences had the devices ignited while in flight.
Delay of the plane was referenced as fortunate, with experts warning there could have been a very different outcome had it taken off on time.
The terrifying episode took place at the DHL centre in Birmingham on the ground of the depot.
Colonel Denis Smolyaninov, a GRU officer, is believed to have been behind a parcel bomb attack
The fire caused by a suspected Russian incendiary device at a DHL facility in Birmingham in July
Officials said it was ‘pure accident’ that the devices did not go off while the planes were mid-air
A similar fire then broke out at an airport in Warsaw in the following days.
At the time, the head of Poland’s foreign intelligence agency, Pawel Szota, blamed Russia, although the prosecutor’s office statement did not name a foreign government suspected of directing the operations.
The devices were reportedly hidden in massage cushions in the parcels alongside cosmetics and sex toys, which did not raise suspicions during pre-flight security checks, according to investigations by German broadcasters WDR and NDR and the Süddeutsche Zeitung.
European officials previously warned that mass casualties were avoided purely ‘by accident’ as the bombs did not go off in mid-air.
They suspected that the packages were intended to expose vulnerabilities in western delivery channels to the US.
Reports had previously linked the GRU, Russia’s intelligence agency, to the plot.
GRU officer Colonel Denis Smolyaninov is one of the men believed to have been behind the sabotage operation.
He is believed to have been one of ten people involved in the attack, including low-level proxies that sent the devices through air freight hubs.
The suspect package exploded in a DHL logistics centre in Leipzig before it could be loaded onto an aircraft
According to documents obtained by Dossier Center, the investigative unit funded by Kremlin critic Mikhail Khodorkovsky, Colonel Smolyaninov was plotting to disrupt western aviation since 2014.
The documents, seen by German reporters show that Russian agents had plotted ways to obstruct radio communication between pilots and ground personnel.
If successful, pilots and airport staff would not be able to hear each other, which could cause planes to be misdirected.
In August 2024, two parcels were sent from Warsaw to the US and Canada, containing clothes, trainers and tracking devices in what are believed to have been dry runs.
Several people, including Ukrainians and Lithuanians, have been detained regarding the plot.
Another suspected plotter identified by German media is a Russian named as Aleksandr B, who was arrested in Bosnia-Herzegovina last year suspected of training Moldovans for protests in their home country.
He was extradited to Poland in February on charges of ‘co-ordinating acts of sabotage’.
However, the sabotage series appears to have stopped last year. According to German media, the sabotage series has stopped after US officials made it clear to Russia that they knew who was behind it and that no further escalation would be tolerated.
The Russian embassy in Berlin told the German reporters that accusations of the sabotage plot were ‘paranoia’ and ‘conspiracy theories’.
