Spain tightens security as PM is threatened by letter bombs

• Spain says it is stepping up security measures after letter bombs found across the nation.
• One bomb was addressed to Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez last week.
• Another bomb was deactivated at an arms manufacturer on Wednesday.

Following the discovery of several letter bombs across the nation, including one that was sent to the prime minister of Spain last week, Spain said on Thursday that it was stepping up security measures.

After one of these bombs exploded at the Ukrainian embassy in Madrid on Wednesday and another was deactivated at an armaments manufacturer, the most recent one, which was transported to an air force installation nearby Madrid, was found early on Thursday morning.

On November 24, a letter bomb addressed to Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez arrived at his official Moncloa compound and was immediately identified as suspicious by his security staff. They executed a “managed explosion” of the envelope after constructing a security perimeter, according to a statement from the interior ministry.

According to the statement, the letter bomb “would be similar, for its features and content,” to those delivered on Wednesday to the Ukrainian embassy in Madrid, the arms company Instalaza in Zaragoza, and the Spanish air force facility at Torrejon near Madrid.

The most recent mail bomb was addressed to the Torrejon air force installation and was intercepted Thursday soon before dawn.

According to representatives of the Spanish defense ministry, a scanner at the base picked up a suspicious packet. According to a statement, the scan suggested that the envelope may contain “some form of device.” The envelope, which was addressed to the Satellite Center at the air base, was examined by police after they were called to the facility.

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The most recent developments came after two letter bombs were found on Wednesday. An employee was hurt in the afternoon explosion at the Ukrainian embassy in Madrid, according to Spanish officials.

According to a statement from Spain’s foreign ministry, a Ukrainian employee at the embassy handled the envelope addressed to the Ukrainian ambassador to Spain before it exploded. A senior Spanish official reported that later that evening, police in northern Spain deactivated a letter bomb at a weapons manufacturer.

According to the official, Rosa Serrano, the letter sent to the arms manufacturer had the same return address as the envelope that detonated at the Ukrainian embassy in Madrid late on Wednesday.

“The return address on the envelope is an email that is the same” on both envelopes, said Serrano, who is the top Spanish government official in the Aragon region where the second letter bomb arrived.

The envelope at the weapons maker in the city of Zaragoza, in Aragon, “apparently came from Ukraine,” Serrano said, adding that authorities suspect the one at the embassy may have also come from Ukraine.

When an envelope arrived shortly after the Madrid explosion that no one seemed to recognize, the arms factory notified the police, according to Serrano, who said that someone executive there was apparently informed of the blast.

When the bomb squad came, the police discovered explosives within the package that were intended to detonate upon opening. Serrano said that it was disabled.

Serrano did not name the company, but the name was given by Spanish media, which also stated that the company produced the rocket launchers that Spain had deployed to Ukraine to fight the Russian incursion.

“I know the firm has been an arms manufacturer a long time, with state-of-the-art facilities,” Serrano said in the radio interview.

Each letter bomb was reported by police to Spain’s National Court, which looks into terrorism, according to the statement.

All Spanish embassies and consulates as well as other locations that require special security have been instructed to implement heightened security measures by the interior ministry. After Russia’s invasion of Ukraine began, security had already been tightened.

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