Ms Calow-Jaszewska said in a statement that a group of foreign intelligence saboteurs had been involved in sending parcels containing hidden explosives and dangerous materials via courier companies. The parcels then spontaneously burst into flames or blew up.
Western officials believe the fires originated in electric massage machines containing a “magnesium-based” substance.
Magnesium-based fires are hard to put out, especially on board a plane.
“The group’s goal was also to test the transfer channel for such parcels, which were ultimately to be sent to the United States of America and Canada,” Ms Calow-Jaszewska said.
Some of the devices originated in Lithuania, and prosecutor general Nida Grunskiene said there had been arrests there too. A pre-trial investigation was under way and law enforcement agencies from other countries were taking part, she told reporters.
On three days in July, fires broke out in a container due to be loaded on to a DHL cargo plane in the German city of Leipzig, at a transport company near Warsaw, and at Minworth near Birmingham, UK, involving a package described as an incendiary device.
The incident at Jablonow near Warsaw took two hours to extinguish, according to Polish reports.
UK officials have given few details about the fire at Midpoint Way in Minworth on 22 July. A Met Police spokesperson confirmed that a counter-terrorism investigation was under way after a package at a commercial premises caught alight, adding that “it was dealt with by staff and the local fire brigade”.
Ken McCallum, head of the UK’s domestic intelligence agency MI5, said last month that Russian secret agents had carried out “arson, sabotage and more. Dangerous actions conducted with increasing recklessness” after the UK had helped Ukraine in Russia’s war. His allegations were flatly rejected by the Kremlin.
A spokesperson for the US Transportation Security Administration said in recent months they have put in place additional security measures for certain US-bound cargo flown in by US and foreign airlines.
A US government official also added that there is no current active threat targeting US-bound flights.
