Hostile states recruit youths for crime, Met warns

"PA Media Children and young adults in London are being recruited by hostile states such as Russia and Iran to carry out sabotage and other crimes, the Metropolitan Police has said. Cdr Dominic Murphy, the Met's head of counter-terrorism, said there had been a five-fold rise in hostile state activity since the Salisbury poisonings in 2018. He told the BBC's Politics London programme that some recruits were teenagers and that parents should monitor what their children were doing online."

"A Home Office spokesperson said the convictions over an east London warehouse arson, which targeted aid bound for Ukraine, "should serve as a clear warning" to anyone considering working for a foreign power such as Russia. The blaze, in March 2023, was linked to the Wagner Group, an organisation associated with the Russian state. The warehouse in Leyton had shipped equipment including Starlink satellite kits used by Ukrainian troops."

"He said the same network had also carried out reconnaissance for a planned attack on a Russian dissident and businesses he owned in London. Cdr Murphy warned that foreign powers were increasingly turning to young people in Britain as proxies. "I'm really concerned about what we're seeing in some of our casework," he said. "We are seeing younger people drawn into conducting this activity on behalf of foreign states."

Metropolitan Police report a five-fold rise in hostile state activity in the UK since the Salisbury poisonings in 2018. Children and young adults in London are being recruited by hostile states such as Russia and Iran to carry out sabotage and other crimes. Some recruits are teenagers. Parents are urged to monitor children's online activity. Convictions over an east London warehouse arson that targeted aid bound for Ukraine were linked to the Wagner Group, an organisation associated with the Russian state. The Leyton warehouse had shipped equipment including Starlink satellite kits used by Ukrainian troops. The same network conducted reconnaissance for a planned attack on a Russian dissident.

Read at www.bbc.com