Police in Spain have arrested a Spanish man on suspicion of sending six mail bomb for Spain’s prime minister, Ukraine’s ambassador to Madrid, and other high-profile targets late last year, the country’s interior ministry said in a statement on Wednesday.
The ministry’s press office said the arrest of the 74-year-old suspect took place in the town of Miranda de Ebro, about a three-hour drive north of Madrid.
According to a statement, police said the suspect is retired, “very active on social media” and has technical and computer knowledge.
Police identified the suspect involved in sending the six letters from the city of Burgos, about an hour’s drive southwest of Miranda de Ebro.
Although “it is possible that the suspect made and sent explosive devices himself, police have not ruled out the participation or influence of others in these events,” the ministry said.
According to the statement, police searched the suspect’s home in Miranda de Ebro, where the bombs are believed to have been assembled.
The investigation dragged on in various provinces before the suspect was arrested. He was not fully identified, but police provided his initials as “PGP,” the statement added.
Spain’s interior ministry said the arrest of the suspect was part of an ongoing operation coordinated by an investigative judge at Spain’s National Court in Madrid.
The suspect is expected to be charged before a National Court judge on Friday in a closed-door hearing, the court’s press office told CNN.
Some platforms: The only reported injury from the six letter bombs was at the Ukrainian Embassy in Madrid on 30 November last year. An embassy employee was injured while handling a letter addressed to the Ukrainian ambassador, Spanish officials said at the time.
Authorities said five other mail bombs, all of which were intercepted by security checks and caused no injuries, were delivered in late November or early December.
They were sent to Spain’s prime minister, Spain’s defense minister, the US Embassy in Madrid, a Spanish air base near Madrid, and a Spanish arms manufacturer in the city of Zaragoza to the east. north.
Spanish media reported that weapons from the Spanish arms manufacturer, Instalaza, were said to have been sent by Spain last year to help Ukraine in its fight against Russia’s invasion of the country. . The company declined to comment to CNN on the reports.
On December 1, 2022, the ministry ordered increased security at embassies and consulates in Spain as well as at other locations requiring special protection. Security has been beefed up after the start of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine last February.
After a series of letter bombs, the Russian embassy in Madrid tweeted that it condemned the sending of such devices.
“We condemn any terrorist threat or act,” it wrote on Twitter.
But US officials believe that Russian intelligence officer directed a group of white Russian supremacists to carry out the mail bombing campaign as a warning to the European governments that had rallied around Ukraine since the Russian invasion.
