Five men have been arrested on suspicion of terror offences relating to Syria after armed officers stopped a vehicle as it was trying to leave the UK at Dover port.
Two men, aged 33 and 43, were arrested when counter-terror officers swooped on their van at the busy cross-channel port at 11.30pm on Sunday.
Another man, aged 28, was arrested at the port at 8.30am on Monday – hours after officers arrested a 24-year-old man and a 40-year-old man in a dawn raid in east London.
Scotland Yard said the counter-terror arrests were “not in response to any immediate threat”.
Four addresses in east London and one in south London are being searched as part of the investigation.
The Metropolitan police said another 12 men and one woman were stopped in the same vehicle at Dover port and arrested on suspicion of immigration offences. One man, aged 37, was held over suspected people-trafficking offences.
Assistant commissioner Mark Rowley, Britain’s counter-terror chief, said last week police had made 271 arrests after counter-terrorism investigations this year.
The latest arrests came after increased police activity at ports as well as shopping centres, cinemas and sport stadiums across the UK for national counter-terrorism awareness week.
