It’s a bad day to go to the cemetery. It’s raining on the cemetery of Miranda de Ebro (Burgos, 35,000 inhabitants). No one lays flowers or prays to their dead. The only sign of life among the cypresses is the sentry box, where an “office” painted on the door invites you to take shelter. There, one of the gravediggers will take care of it, discreetly, as dictated by the guild’s code of ethics. “How do you know that?” he exclaims when asked about an old colleague: Pompeyo González Pascual. This 74-year-old retired undertaker, who had radicalized for the pro-Russian cause of the war in Ukraine, was arrested on Wednesday for sending bombshell letters to embassies, ministries or La Moncloa in late 2022. What happened left Miranda baffled due to the odd hobbies that his neighbors define as a “formal, highly educated man.” One of those guys who would never make homemade explosives.
“This profession attracts those of us who are a bit ‘like that’, I’ve always said it takes the best in every home,” shrugged the community worker, who asked not to be identified. The best thing about the 3 degree apartment at number 2 Calle del Clavel was Pompeyo, who has lived alone and hardly had a social life since he retired about 10 years ago after leaving his job as a undertaker on the Miranda -Friedhof had jumped to do the same job in nearby Vitoria. Not much was wasted at the pit either. He was “introverted, hardworking and correct, he never positioned himself”.
More information
Pompeyo abandoned his radical tendencies for privacy in the safety of his home, where he allegedly made six explosive devices that he sent to the embassies of Ukraine (where he caused injury) and the United States, to the Moncloa Palace, to the headquarters of the Ministry of Defense and an arms factory in Zaragoza. The news broke on Wednesday with a large-scale police operation in his neighborhood. The Burgos undertaker had Pompeyo in mind when he found out the suspect was “74 years old, lonely, single and working in Vitoria”. Correct: The TV showed a small, gray-haired man wearing his usual cap among dozens of agents. “You have to be worth it for that,” says the undertaker.
The owner of the Biosfera bar, Víctor Berrueco, was one of the first people from Miranda to discover the operation promoted by the national court. The man, who was walking his dogs late Wednesday, explains he was doing the same thing with his pets that same morning when he saw a car double-parked in front of a gray Peugeot. He did not know it was Pompey’s vehicle, but he deduced the occupation of the occupants: “They had a face like a policeman…”. However, they did not act where Berrueco suspects “trapicheos”, but blocked the pensioner’s possible escape. Pompeyo, petrified in front of the police officers, only knew how to say: “You were wrong,” as the statement reads. Sources from the Herrero-Alegre law firm, which assisted the arrested man ex officio, highlight the “training” he used to visit the agents and spoke about “trivial” subjects such as his love of paragliding and the peaceful attitude he took throughout moment over preserved .
Police arrived in Pompeyo and analyzed his physical trail until they were able to match the DNA collected in the envelopes of the explosives letters with that found in his trash. His fingerprint was also traced as he followed pro-Russian accounts or weapons websites. On his YouTube profile, he uploaded videos he took with a confiscated drone and manipulated it to launch artifacts from the air, like the ones he sent through the mail. This ability fits in with one of his hobbies, model flying, as a member of the club in Miranda de Ebro confirms: “He came once to see exhibitions, but he never caught his eye.”
What affects most is what happens closer. Subscribe so you don’t miss anything.
Subscribe to
The search confiscated pro-Soviet symbols, press clippings from various eras (covering information from World War I to the ETA attacks), and numerous republican or revolutionary books. Pipes of different sizes, a drill, magnets, cables or a saw were also found. This was already foreseen by the judge who approved the search for “those effects, instruments and hardware objects in connection with the criminal offense to be investigated, such as weapons, precursors, explosive substances…”. A company of envelopes confirmed that Pompeyo had acquired 25 units like those of the attacks; The multinational Amazon confirmed that it bought chemical substances, screws, stickers or hinges that made up its letters.
Investigators, who believe Pompeyo radicalized alone without ruling out the possibility that he was influenced by “other actors”, also found a mobile phone, laptop, video camera and memory cards and devices. . The National Court ordered his detention on Friday because of “the risk of committing other criminal acts in order to avoid his possible flight to Russia (for which he believes he could end up getting help from citizens of that country,” the judge wrote). and for “the importance of their violent actions as a propaganda tool for the Russian occupation of Ukraine”.
When Pompeyo left González Miranda in custody, an orchestra of 118 Ukrainians happened to arrive in the city. The entourage is touring Spain and filling rooms, but will soon return to Kharkiv, one of the most dangerous places in Ukraine. Mykolay and Miguel, the translator, pass their hotel. Their eyes widen as they hear the story of Pompey. The assistant interprets the musician’s vehemence: “It doesn’t seem right to him, but he understands that these are individual things, not general things; You have to help us so that the problem doesn’t get worse.” “We had a lot of mechanical and technical problems, but being surrounded by sirens and bombs is incomparable,” says Miguel.
The facts have led the court to attribute several terrorist crimes to the accused, believing that the retired undertaker’s actions in connection with the war in Ukraine could “seriously disturb the public peace”. Pompey set another milestone: disturbing the peace of his landing. Below him lives Elisa Rojas, 84, who, like her neighbors, is “shocked”. “I didn’t have more than one chamomile,” says the old woman, disgusted by such an event in the apartment Pompeyo acquired 15 years ago. “His head will be gone,” muses the Burgos woman before closing the door, which comes in coldly: “I didn’t know anything about his life, but he’s always been compliant with the leaks.”
Subscribe to continue reading
Read without limits