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Spain court orders release on bail of letter bomb suspect

A pensioner who allegedly sent letter bombs to Spain's Prime Minister and the Ukrainian embassy has been released on bail, a Spanish court said Friday.

Spain court orders release on bail of letter bomb suspect
Spanish policemen secure the area after a letter bomb explosion at the Ukraine's embassy in Madrid on November 30, 2022. Photo: Thomas COEX/AFP

The 74-year-old is accused of having sent six letter bombs to targets including Spanish ministers and embassies to push Madrid into halting support for Kyiv in the fight against Russia’s invasion.

The home-made devices were sent in late November and early December to Spain’s prime minister and defence minister, the Ukrainian and US embassies, the European Union Satellite Centre near Madrid and to a Spanish arms manufacturer in the northeastern city of Zaragoza.

Nobody was killed by the devices but a Ukrainian embassy staffer sustained light injuries while opening one of the packages.

The pensioner was arrested in January and placed in pre-trial detention on the grounds that he could flee to “Russian territory”. But Judge Jose Luis Calama of Spain’s top criminal court, the Audiencia Nacional, said Friday it had granted the man bail pending trial.

The judge ordered him to follow a list of bail conditions, including reporting to a court hear his home every week and surrendering his travel documents so he can’t leave Spain.

In his ruling, the judge said there was no longer a risk that the suspect could destroy evidence and there was no evidence that he would repeat the crimes he is accused of.

The judge also noted that the man has no previous criminal record and said that given his age “other protective measures which are less restrictive” could be applied.

If convicted, the suspect could face up to 20 years in jail on terror offences.

The judge said the suspect sought to “force” the Spanish authorities to “refrain from supporting Ukraine in the face of Russia’s aggression”, which made him a flight risk.

While he said there were no indications of his involvement “with any other terrorist group”, Spanish police have not ruled out “the participation or influence of other people”.

The suspect’s arrest followed a New York Times report which said Russian military intelligence officers had “directed” associates of a Russia-based white supremacist group to carry out the campaign in Spain.

Investigators suspect the radical Russian Imperial Movement (RIM) — which is thought to have ties to Russian intelligence and has associates across Europe — is behind the letter bomb campaign.

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CRIME

Spain seizes 1.8 tonnes of Sinaloa Cartel’s crystal meth

Spanish police said Thursday they had seized 1,800 kilos of crystal meth that Mexico's Sinaloa Cartel was trying to sell in Europe, the country's "biggest-ever seizure" of the narcotic.

Spain seizes 1.8 tonnes of Sinaloa Cartel's crystal meth

Police arrested five people during the raid in the eastern Alicante province, one of them a Mexican running the cartel’s Spanish operation, a statement said.

“This is the biggest-ever seizure of crystal meth in Spain and the second largest in Europe,” Antonio Martinez Duarte, head of the police’s drug trafficking and organised crime unit, told reporters.

“Among those arrested is a Mexican citizen linked to the Sinaloa Cartel,” he added.

READ ALSO: What are the penalties for drug possession in Spain?

He did not give his name but indicated the suspect was responsible for receiving the narcotics in Spain then distributing them within Europe.

The Sinaloa Cartel is one of Mexico’s oldest, largest and most violent criminal groups whose influence remains strong despite the arrest of its founder Joaquin ‘El Chapo’ Guzman and his son.

Both have been extradited to and jailed in the United States.

During the operation, police also detained three Spaniards and a Romanian, seizing five cars, documents, a weapon and cash.

But police believe it was a one-off trafficking operation and that “Mexican organisations are not permanently based” in Spain, Martinez Duarte said.

“These organisations send a trusted person who carries out the operation in line with their interests” and once that is over, he goes back home, he explained.

The seized narcotics had been due to be shipped to central Europe.

Although Spain is one of the main drug gateways to Europe, seizures of synthetic narcotics are uncommon as most traffickers usually deal in cannabis and cocaine.

READ ALSO: Why is Spain’s Europe’s cocaine gateway?

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