Two arrested in Sweden, accused of spying

Swedish authorities in a pre-dawn raid Tuesday arrested two people from the Stockholm area for suspected espionage. Witnesses told Swedish media that police officers rappelled from Black Hawk helicopters to arrest the two individuals. Sweden’s Prosecution Authority said one of the two people was accused of “gross illegal intelligence activities” against Sweden and another unnamed country. The second person is suspected of aiding the first. Sweden’s security agency said a probe had been ongoing for some time.

Why the helicopters and everything? Stefan Hector, head of the Swedish police national operative department, said that swift action was needed so that the suspects would “not be able to flush anything in the toilet or destroy computers.” He said the work, called “Operation Spear,” took under a minute. It involved coordination between the police, Sweden’s spy agency, and the Swedish Armed Forces.

Dig deeper: Read Maryrose Delahunty’s report in WORLD Magazine about the “Ghost Army” illusionists of WWII.