They intercept 6 letter bombs in Spain 2:29
(CNN) --
Police in Spain have arrested a Spaniard on suspicion of sending six letter bombs late last year to the Spanish prime minister and other high-profile targets, the country's interior ministry said in a statement Wednesday.
The arrest took place in the town of Miranda de Ebro, about a 3-hour drive north of Madrid, where police were searching the residence of the 74-year-old suspect, the statement said.
“The Spanish National Police arrested a Spaniard this morning, in the town of Miranda de Ebro, in the province of Burgos, for allegedly sending the six letters with explosive material that were sent at the end of last November and beginning of December to different companies and institutions," says the statement from the Ministry.
The only reported injury from the six letter bombs was at the Ukrainian embassy in Madrid on November 30, where an embassy employee was injured while handling the letter, which was addressed to the Ukrainian ambassador in Spain, Spanish officials said at that time. moment.
Russian intelligence agents reportedly ordered white supremacists to send letter bombs in Spain, US officials say.
Spanish police secure the area after the explosion of a letter bomb at the Ukrainian embassy in Madrid on November 30, 2022. while manipulating, a police source has said.
(Photo by OSCAR DEL POZO/AFP) (Photo by OSCAR DEL POZO/AFP via Getty Images)
The authorities said that the other five letter bombs, all intercepted by security controls and which did not leave any injuries, were sent in late November or early December to the president of the Spanish government, the Spanish defense minister, the US embassy. in Madrid, to a Spanish air force base near Madrid and also to a Spanish arms manufacturer in the northern Spanish city of Zaragoza.
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Spanish media reported that some of the weapons from the Spanish arms manufacturer, Instalaza, would have been sent by Spain last year to help Ukraine in its fight against the Russian invasion of that country.
The company has declined to comment with CNN on the reports.
The suspect's arrest on Wednesday is part of an ongoing operation coordinated by an investigating judge at Spain's National Court in Madrid, the Interior Ministry said.
Where did the 'bomb letters' arrive in Spain and what do we know about them?
The National Court hears terrorism cases, including terrorism investigations under the direction of a magistrate and, subsequently, a possible trial presided over by other judges of the court.
The suspect is expected to appear before a National Court judge on Friday, in a closed-door hearing, the court's press office told CNN.
On December 1 of last year, the Ministry of the Interior ordered increased security at embassies and consulates in Spain, and in other places that require special protection.
Security had already been tightened after the start of the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February last year.
After the avalanche of letter bombs in Spain, the Russian embassy in Madrid had tweeted that it condemned the sending of letter bombs to public buildings throughout Spain.
“We condemn any terrorist threat or act,” the Russian embassy said in a tweet at the time.
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