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Police probe global right-wing terror ring

Police are investigating a global arms ring supplying White supremacist groups who are becoming a serious terrorist threat to Britain, a senior officer revealed on Thursday.

  • By Andrew Bounds and James Boxell, Financial Times
  • Published: 23:26 July 3, 2009
  • Gulf News

London: Police are investigating a global arms ring supplying White supremacist groups who are becoming a serious terrorist threat to Britain, a senior officer revealed on Thursday.

"There is a growing right-wing threat, not just Al Qaida," Sir Norman Bettison, chief constable of West Yorkshire police, told a security conference in London.

Sir Norman, whose force runs a regional counter-terrorism unit in Leeds, said more than 30 people in the UK had been investigated and pipe bombs, rocket launchers, grenades and firearms seized during the operation so far.

There had been arrests in the UK, continental Europe, New Zealand and Australia, he said. Some 300 firearms and 80 homemade bombs had been recovered.

The revelation comes as far-right activity is on the increase. Far-right parties across the European Union, including the British National Party, did well in elections to the European parliament in June.

The BNP, which won two seats for the first time in Yorkshire and the North-West and took 6.2 per cent of the national vote, says it opposes violence. It only allows white Caucasians to join and wants to repatriate non-British people voluntarily.

Romanian families left Northern Ireland last month after being chased from their homes in Belfast by racist abuse and threats.

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