Three men have been arrested in London on suspicion of assisting a Russian intelligence service, as part of an ongoing national security investigation, police said.
The men, aged 44, 45 and 48, were detained on Thursday morning in west and central London under section 3 of the National Security Act. Searches are continuing at the addresses where they were arrested and at a further location in west London.
The Metropolitan Police did not disclose the men's nationality, but the head of the force's counter-terrorism command indicated that they are suspected of acting as proxies for a Russian intelligence service.
Commander Dominic Murphy, 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."
