Mobius report 38/2023 – Serial Parcel Bomber, Brazil

On May 5, 2023, a VOIED was discovered when a parcel was opened by a resident of the Vale dos Lagos neighborhood of Salvador, in Bahia State, Brazil. The partially opened package contained an IED whose initiation system included a commercial electronic timer, a clothespin, and a large 12 V battery. The parcel IED was destroyed by the bomb disposal unit of the Special Operations Police Battalion. A package identical in characteristics and components was neutralized two years earlier in Minas Gerais State and contained an identical initiation system and a 400 gram explosive payload. The investigations of the two incidents revealed the recipient on the parcel IED in Salvador was not the name of the person residing at the address on the parcel, and the parcel IED delivered to the nursing home was not addressed to a specific person. No connection between the two incidents was mentioned in the reporting of the incidents, but in our estimation, the unique components of the IEDs indicates the same person assembled both parcel IEDs and it is possible there is a serial parcel bomber in Brazil who is sending VOIEDs to random destinations with the aim of creating panic.