Two men arrested on suspicion of trespass at RAF base

Two Latvian men have been arrested under the National Security Act after a fence was breached at an RAF base in Cambridgeshire.

The alert was raised when a Ministry of Defence Police (MDP) security patrol at RAF Molesworth identified an abandoned vehicle at about 22:00 BST on Wednesday.

After searches by the MDP and Cambridgeshire Constabulary, a small breach of a perimeter fence was identified a few hours later.

The two men, who the Met Police said lived in the UK and were aged 36 and 32, were arrested inside the base perimeter.

The pair were initially arrested on suspicion of trespass on a prohibited site and criminal damage and taken to a Cambridgeshire police station.

The pair have since been further arrested on suspicion of an offence under section 4 of the National Security Act 2023, external – namely entering a prohibited place for a purpose prejudicial to the UK.

Police are not currently linking it to the high-profile incident at RAF Fairford in Gloucestershire, but are understood to be keeping an open mind.

RAF Molesworth is home to the US’s intelligence operations centres for Europe and Africa, as well as a Nato intelligence hub, according to the Central Intelligence Agency’s website.

It is located west of Huntingdon, close to the border with Northamptonshire.

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