Criminals in Britain are being recruited to Iranian sleeper cells to carry out surveillance and harassment on UK streets, intelligence sources have warned.
Fears of an attack on British soil in retaliation to Donald Trump’s military strikes on Iran are rising, with British intelligence closely monitoring sleeper cells and proxy groups in the UK.
Four men have been arrested in the UK on suspicion of working for Iranian intelligence in a plot to surveil and monitor individuals and sites linked to the Jewish community.
The arrests were part of a months-long counter-terror investigation, which also saw six other men in North London arrested for assisting the suspects.
As tensions between Tehran and the West once again escalate, government officials, counter-terrorism advisers and intelligence sources tell The i Paper that the first indications that the war in Iran has come to UK streets is here.
How sleeper agents are recruited in UK
Concerns about the Tehran regime’s ability to lash out at Western allies are rooted in longstanding efforts by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) to co-ordinate clandestine intelligence activities including assassinations and cyber attacks in the West.
A Whitehall counter-terrorism official who had experience with known Iranian intelligence networks said the IRGC works with known terrorist groups to develop a structure they called a “modern evolution” of the traditional sleeper cell model.
“These are essentially individuals recruited by Hezbollah whilst in Iran or Lebanon or elsewhere, who are then assisted to settle in the US or Western Europe under false pretences,” the official said. “They’re then ‘activated’ in the event of attacks on Iran or its proxies and tasked with attacks or sabotage.”
The official added that such organised networks are only part of the picture, adding that “much less formal” arrangements can be made whereby “unaffiliated individuals are paid to carry out attacks” when required.
“These are cheaper,” they said. “But less competent and more risky.”
Iran regime opponents take part in a rally outside the US consulate in Edinburgh, in support of the US and Israeli attacks on Iran (Photo: Jane Barlow/PA)As well as sending operatives to Britain, recruitment efforts are increasingly focused at individuals already living in Britain, according to a UK intelligence source with experience of intelligence operations against Iranian sleeper cells.
The source noted an uptick in hostile Iranian activity since the outbreak of conflict between Israel and Palestine following the October 7 attack by Hamas.
“Generally, these are individuals recruited over Telegram for specific tasks, but it could also be for longer-term assignments,” they said.
“It’s better to conceptualise ‘sleeper cells’ as individuals in the UK who have some degree of willingness to work with Iran, notably criminals.”
According to the source, the “primary concern” was that the IRGC has shown particular interest in targeting journalists and activists in exile for attacks ranging from “threats to life at the top end to recruitment attempts at the bottom”.
‘Significant increase’ in threat of harassment and cyber attacks
Senior British officials have raised awareness to the increased clandestine acts of Iran in recent years.
Last year a report by Parliament’s Intelligence and Security Committee found there had been a “significant increase” in physical threat by Iran through assassinations, kidnap attempts, and cyber attacks on people living in the UK.
The report stated that Iran poses one of the biggest hostile state threats to the UK, after China and Russia, but warned the UK Government did not have an adequate strategy to deal with it.
The head of MI5, Ken McCallum, warned last year that Tehran had been responsible for “plot after plot” on British soil. Five new planned attacks were uncovered in a single year, he said, bringing the total number of disrupted plots since January 2022 to 20.
Officers, he said, were giving their “fullest attention” to any increase in Iranian state aggression in the UK.
Andreas Krieg, an associate professor in security studies at King’s College London, said networks known to monitor dissidents could be “repurposed” if tensions continue to escalate.
“It is feasible for networks that have been used primarily to monitor, intimidate, or harass dissidents to be repurposed for retaliation in the UK,” he said. “But I would frame that risk as most credible in a supporting rather than a “stand-alone cell” role.”
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He added: “In practice, the same people who can collect information on routines, locations and vulnerabilities can also be tasked to provide low-visibility facilitation: surveillance, delivery of messages, procurement of everyday items, introductions to criminal intermediaries, or providing a safe layer between a planner overseas and an executor on the ground.
“That said, moving from harassment to a physical attack is a significant escalation that carries higher operational risk and a greater chance of disruption”.
When asked about the scale of the problem faced by the UK from Tehran, a counter-terror official said it was “almost impossible” to say, but warned “we could be about to find out.”
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