TWO people from Yorkshire have been arrested following a huge police operation targeting animal rights extremists.
More than 700 officers raided 32 properties across the UK, Belgium and the Netherlands, arresting 32 people in total.
The operation, which was co-ordinated by police forces across the South East, was the culmination of a two-year investigation int
o an alleged conspiracy of extremism against a variety of organisations and individuals, including Huntingdon Life Sciences.
Assistant Chief Constable Adrian Leppard, of Kent Police, said the raids focused on 32 properties – 29 in the UK, one in Belgium and two in the Netherlands – beginning at 5.30am yesterday.
Officers from North Yorkshire Police and West Yorkshire Police helped execute the warrants.
A 35-year-old woman from Upper Sackville Street, Skipton, and a 33-year-old man from Smalewell Road, Pudsey, Leeds, were among the 15 men and 17 women – aged between 19 and 68 – who were arrested.
Hampshire Police said documents, mobile phones, computer equipment and cash totalling around £100,000 were seized during the raids.
Crime specialists are now examining the computer equipment while financial investigators from the City of London Police economic crime unit are helping to probe the cash uncovered. A police spokeswoman said searches may continue for several days.
Assistant Chief Constable Leppard said: "It is a very large operation, one of the largest, if not the largest, police operation that has targeted animal extremism in the UK."
He said the operation was targeting both individual crimes and alleged conspiracy to commit acts of extremism against animal research groups and individuals. The alleged offences included burglary and conspiracy to blackmail.
"In recent years, animal rights extremists have conducted sustained
campaigns of harassment and intimidation against the animal research industry, seeking to achieve their objectives by creating a climate of fear.
"Although the vast majority of animal rights protesters campaign lawfully, a small minority seeks to force change through criminal action.
"To some animal rights extremists, any organisations and individuals who have links to the animal research industry are justifiable targets, however tenuous those links might be," he said.
"The victims of animal rights extremism are not only companies or universities. It is employees along with their families, their friends and neighbours who often are targeted in their own homes.
"The impact of these personalised campaigns on individuals is deeply distressing and often involves criminal activity."
He added that the operation was being led by the Kent, Hampshire, Sussex, Surrey and Thames Valley Police forces because the majority of the suspected extremist activity was in the South East.
The manager of one of the targeted properties, Freshfields Animal Rescue Centre in Ince Blundell, Merseyside, claimed police used "heavy-handed" tactics in the raid.
Dave Calendar said some of his staff were injured as they attempted to protect the animals and some animals were released during the raid.
He said he could not comment on any individual raids but added: "We are doing everything we can to minimise any disruption we have caused."
Huntingdon Life Sciences has long been a focus both of peaceful demonstrations and more extreme tactics.
Protesters have repeatedly broken into the controversial Cambridgeshire laboratory, which is Europe's biggest commercial animal-testing laboratory. They have firebombed cars and subjected staff and shareholders to intimidation and threats.
Companies which trade with Hunting Life Sciences have also been the target of extremism, with militants vandalising houses and cars.
A spokesman for the company said: "It is great to see the results of police investigations from over the past two years beginning to control the activities of animal rights extremists in the UK."
