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ARCHIVED - Spanish retiree arrested for national letter bomb campaign
The pensioner allegedly sent explosives to the President of Spain and other senior officials
In a case full of twists and turns, the National Police have arrested a Spanish citizen in the municipality of Burgos for allegedly posting mail bombs to the Spanish President, the Ukrainian and US embassies, the Ministry of Defence, the Torrejón de Ardoz air base in Madrid and an arms manufacturer in Zaragoza. Several of the potentially lethal letters also contained animal entrails.
The 74 year old, named only as PGP, was picked up in the town of Miranda de Ebro on Wednesday January 25 as the alleged perpetrator of what many officials are referring to as a terrorist attack at the end of last year. A computer and technology whizz, the suspect is understood to be very active on social media and to have held an office in the Vitoria City Council until 2013.
While investigators now believe that all of the explosive devices originated in the city Burgos, most recently the authorities have been focused on the Russian Imperial Movement, a white supremacist group with members across Europe.
According to American and European officials, strong evidence pointed to the involvement of the Russian-based group, which has known links to far-right organisations across Spain. It's still unclear whether the suspect has any links to this group.
When the letters began arriving at high-profile buildings throughout Spain on November 24, the government feared that more large-scale attacks could be ordered by Russia and security was stepped up at all official buildings. Despite the receipt of six different letter bombs, no serious injuries were reported, although a security guard at the Ukrainian Embassy suffered minor burns.
On January 3, the National Court judge opened a new line of investigation into the technological nature of the mail explosives, which lead police to the eventual capture of the Burgos suspect.
Image: Wikimedia commons
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