Teenagers as young as 15 being arrested in hostile state probes, police say
Counter-terror police warn Iran, Russia and China are exploiting vulnerable young people to carry out hostile acts in Britain
Teenagers as young as 15 are being arrested as police investigate plots by hostile states to destabilise Britain and target the Jewish community.
Counter-terror police bosses told how countries like Iran, Russia and China are “actively looking to intervene in our way of life” as they warned how easy it was for young people to be exploited and used as proxies to carry out crimes on UK soil, lured by the promise of cash rewards and protection.
Speaking to reporters on Thursday, head of Counter Terrorism Policing Laurence Taylor said the number of national security investigations his officers are working on has risen by 50 percent since the end of last year, showing “no sign of slowing down”.
“We anticipate reporting even bigger growth in the coming months,” he added.
Describing the work as “our most rapidly escalating mission”, senior national co-ordinator Vicki Evans said using proxies was “tactic number one” for hostile states who consider them “cheap and replaceable assets” who are unwittingly drawn into plots.
Ms Evans warned that “anyone can be targeted” as she said it could happen anywhere – online, at home or at work.
She said: “In this area of work, we’ve seen teenagers as young as 15 arrested.
“You might not even know you are being targeted by Moscow or Tehran or Hong Kong, but the outcome is the same for those who are being tasked with these acts.
“It means they are being used by a hostile state and the weight of the law is very heavy when you’re caught.”
The promises of money and help “fall away like sandcastles at high tide when the acts are completed”, she added.
While expressing her support for the proposed social media ban for children, she said that alone would not be enough to counter such threats and pressure needed to be put on tech companies to do more.
Iran takes up the “largest proportion” of hostile states case work for counter terror police, who last year were faced with more than 20 Iranian-backed plots including kidnaps and assassinations on UK soil, she said.
Meanwhile, officers also face a “constant stream” of surveillance plots and attempts to “infiltrate” everyday life from Russia.
It comes after news that Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) could be banned in the UK within days after new laws for the Home Secretary to crack down on groups working on behalf of hostile states came into force.
The National Security (State Threats) Act received royal assent on Wednesday, paving the way for a ban on the IRGC, as recommended by terror laws watchdog Jonathan Hall KC.
A recent spate of antisemitic attacks on Jewish sites in London was claimed by a group called Harakat Ashab al-Yamin al-Islamia, the Islamic Movement of the Companions of the Right (Hayi), which is thought to be backed by Iran.
The legislation gives the Home Secretary powers to make it illegal to support groups working on behalf of hostile foreign powers in the UK, including by targeting dissidents and other communities or carrying out cyber attacks on critical national infrastructure.
Supporting, assisting or getting paid by a designated group could mean a punishment of up to 14 years in prison.
The new laws “mean we can go harder” to tackle hostile states, she said.
Asked by the Press Association if proscribing the IRGC would make the job of police fighting foreign state threats easier, Mr Taylor said he would “welcome anything that supports us to combat these threats”.
Alongside work to fight threats from hostile states, Mr Taylor said officers were dealing with a “staggering” caseload of more than 800 live counter terrorism investigations, which makes up the largest proportion of their work.
These include multiple probes within the last six months into incidents targeting London, he said, as he repeated pleas for people to always report anything suspicious they spot to police.
His teams are probably the “busiest” they have been for many years, and while the single biggest threat faced was still from Islamist groups, with organisations like Islamic State and others having a growing ambition to attack the West, he warned the extreme right-wing threat was “growing without question”.
“It is our belief that polarised views in society are having a direct impact on that increased threat.
“What was previously unacceptable has now become more prevalent, and those voices are louder. Hateful views are being challenged less and less, and they are taking over and dominating conversations.”
There were increasing attempts to exploit anti-immigration sentiment, he said, as he stressed he was referring to “vile racist content that all parts of society would be shocked and appalled by”, and not legitimate conversations on political decisions and policy.
Mr Taylor noted how the UK is entering a busy and hot summer full of events like festivals and the World Cup against a backdrop of a “febrile political atmosphere”.
Asked by the PA how worried he was that the country could be facing another summer of riots after recent unrest in Southampton and Belfast, he said: “We’ve seen polarised communities across the UK.
“Clearly, my concern comes from the ability for foreign states to utilise that to drive great wedges across our communities or even encourage people to become involved in violence where that would be wholly inappropriate.”
Reiterating how officers were seeing more examples of online conversations evolving into real-life attack planning, he also urged parents to know how to look for signs their teenagers were being radicalised.
“We are seeing more and more examples of young people and children being drawn into violent extremism and terrorism in this way.
“So, being aware of what children are doing online and, even when it’s difficult, it’s vital those conversations take place,” he said, although he stressed he was not encouraging parents to “spy” on their children.
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