Three held on suspicion of helping Russian intelligence

Three men have been arrested in London on suspicion of assisting Russia’s foreign intelligence service, the Metropolitan Police has said.

The three, aged 48, 45, and 44, were arrested at addresses in west and central London. Searches are ongoing at these and another address in west London.

They were arrested on suspicion of assisting a foreign intelligence service, namely Russia, under section 3 of the National Security Act (NSA) 2023, as part of an ongoing investigation into alleged offences under the act led by counter-terrorism police.

The arrests come as police work to clamp down on the increasing number of “proxies” being recruited by foreign intelligence services, the force said.

Cdr Dominic Murphy, head of Counter Terrorism Policing London, said the Met was seeing an increasing number of these.

“Anyone who might be contacted by and tempted into carrying out criminal activity on behalf of a foreign state here in the UK should think again,” he said.

“This kind of activity will be investigated and anyone found to be involved can expect to be prosecuted and there are potentially very serious consequences for those who are convicted.”