Poland: six people arrested for smuggling ammunition components to Russia, four also charged with spying

Poland’s Internal Security Agency (ABW) has arrested six people accused of illegally supplying Russia with ammunition components. They are five Poles and one Russian woman. Four of the six also face a charge of spying for the Russian intelligence services. The arrests were announced on Thursday, November 5 by Tomasz Siemoniak, the minister-coordinator of the special services.

Arrests, searches and detention

ABW officers made the arrests on October 21 and November 2, on the orders of a prosecutor from the Organised Crime and Corruption Department of the National Prosecutor’s Office in Białystok. The suspects are five Poles aged 25 to 52 and a 37-year-old Russian woman. In the course of the investigation, 21 locations were searched in the Warmian-Masurian, Pomeranian and Greater Poland voivodeships.

The National Prosecutor’s Office statement says all six are accused of taking part in an organised criminal group and of illegally exporting weapons components from Poland to Russia, including cartridge cases and projectiles, without the required permit. For four of them the prosecutor additionally brought the charge of acting on behalf of the Russian intelligence service to the detriment of Poland for financial gain, by transporting the materials to Russia and thereby strengthening its military power. The Białystok District Court ordered the four held in pre-trial detention for three months, while the other two were placed under restrictive measures without detention.

How the ring operated

Investigators estimate that the group was active from at least June 2023 to December 2025 in Poland, Lithuania and Russia. Its members handled ordering and buying the goods, receiving them and transporting them to the Kaliningrad region. The purchases were made, among other places, in online shops. For smuggling they used cars with hidden compartments, while the suspects repeatedly crossed the Polish–Russian border. Part of the shipments was intercepted by Polish border guards.

The value of the ammunition components bought and illegally exported to Russia exceeds, according to the investigation so far, 2 million zlotys, about 455,000 euros. The investigation is being conducted by the ABW regional office in Olsztyn under the supervision of the prosecutor’s office.

Siemoniak’s statement

In a post on X, Siemoniak argued that the evidence shows the detainees acted on behalf of Russian secret services and took part in an activity that strengthens the military potential of the Russian Federation. The minister said the suspects supplied Russia with significant quantities of military-use materials used in the production of ammunition and weapons systems.

The wider context

Warsaw has been dealing with a series of Russia-linked cases; see our report on the arrest of two Turkish nationals over the arson at a Starlink station, which Siemoniak also linked to Russian services. Poland has also sent counter-terrorism units to the border with Kaliningrad, and similar cases are being announced in other European countries, such as Romania, where a sabotage network acted on orders from Russia. The presumption of innocence applies to the six suspects until a final ruling is issued.