32 held in animal rights swoop - News - Evening Standard
       

32 held in animal rights swoop

More than 30 people were arrested yesterday in an unprecedented crackdown on suspected animal rights extremists.

The raids, on 32 addresses in the UK, Belgium and the Netherlands, followed a two-year inquiry into a campaign of terror against animal research groups and individuals.

Alleged offences being investigated include burglary and conspiracy to blackmail.

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Protesters outside the Huntingdon Life Sciences Centre in Cambridgeshire

Police said 32 people aged from 19 to 68 had been arrested and premises searched in Berkshire, Hampshire, Surrey, Sussex, Kent, Glasgow, Greater London, Merseyside, Worcestershire, Lancashire, Northumbria, Yorkshire and South Wales.

Documents, mobile phones, computer equipment and around £100,000 in cash were seized.

Two of those arrested were named as exnurse Sarah Whitehead, 50, and Helen Luff, 39, a former traffic warden, from Littlehampton, Sussex.

The pair were convicted last year of stealing hundreds of birds, rats, dogs and guinea pigs from a breeding centre.

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