Three men, aged 44, 45 and 48, were arrested in west and central London on Thursday morning on suspicion of assisting a Russian intelligence service as part of what police said was an ongoing national security investigation.
They were held under section 3 of the National Security Act, the Metropolitan police said, while searches continued at the addresses where they were picked up plus at a further location in west London.
The nationality of the men was not made public, but the head of the Met’s counter-terrorism command indicated that the accused were suspected of acting as surrogates for one of Russia’s intelligence services.
Commander Dominic Murphy, the head of counter-terrorism policing London, said: “We’re seeing an increasing number of who we would describe as ‘proxies’ being recruited by foreign intelligence services, and these arrests are directly related to our ongoing efforts to disrupt this type of activity.
“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.
“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.”
