LONDON — Three people have been arrested under counter-spying laws on suspicion of assisting Russian intelligence.
The Metropolitan Police said two men and one woman were arrested in the Grays area of Essex on Wednesday.
The 41-year-old man, a 35-year-old woman and a 46-year-old man were all apprehended under section 3 of the National Security Act, as part of an investigation led by the Met’s Counter Terrorism Command.
The force said that all three were arrested on suspicion of “assisting a foreign intelligence service,” adding: “The country to which the allegations relate is Russia.”
Commander Dominic Murphy, head of the counter terrorism command, said: “Through our recent national security casework, we’re seeing an increasing number of [people] who we would describe as ‘proxies’ being recruited by foreign intelligence services.”
Murphy highlighted that two British men are awaiting sentencing after being recruited by the Wagner Group — a private military outfit funded by the Russian state — to carry out arson at a Ukraine-linked warehouse. He added that Wednesday’s arrests are unrelated to this case.
“But anyone who might be contacted by and tempted into carrying out criminal activity on behalf of a foreign state here in the U.K. should think again,” Murphy said.
POLITICO has approached the U.K. government for comment.
The post Britain arrests three people for spying for Russia appeared first on Politico.
