CHARGES AFTER ANIMAL RIGHTS RAIDS

A further 20 people have been released on police bail, one person has been released without charge and two others remain in custody. Magistrates granted an extension to police questioning the remaining two for a further 36 hours.

Assistant Chief Constable Adrian Leppard, of Kent Police, said: "The co-ordinated police operation targeting criminal activity associated with animal rights extremism is progressing well.

"Police and forensic searches at all the addresses in Berkshire, Hampshire, Surrey, Sussex, Kent, Greater London, Lancashire, Merseyside, Northumbria, Worcestershire, Yorkshire and South Wales are now complete.

"We have now reached a point in the investigation at which we are able to charge nine people with a number of offences, all relating to criminal activity associated with animal rights extremism. Magistrates have authorised detention of two of the people arrested for a further 36 hours. Twenty other people have now been released on police bail and one person has been released without charge."

The raids on Tuesday morning were the culmination of a two-year investigation into an alleged conspiracy targeting a variety of organisations and individuals, including Huntingdon Life Sciences in Cambridgeshire, police said.

Officers executed warrants to enter and search premises in Berkshire, Hampshire, Surrey, Sussex, Kent, Glasgow, Greater London, Merseyside, Worcestershire, Lancashire, Northumbria, Yorkshire, South Wales, Belgium and the Netherlands.

Police also seized £100,000 in cash, mobile telephones, computer equipment and documents during the operation which involved 700 officers and has been described as the largest of its kind. Financial investigators from the City of London Police Economic Crime Unit are assisting in relation to the quantities of cash recovered.

The seven people charged with conspiracy to blackmail were all bailed to appear before Portsmouth Magistrates' Court on May 15. They are Daniel Amos, 20, and Gerrah Selby, 19, of Aldershot Road, Church Crookham, Hampshire, and Linus Harrison, 21, and Grace Quantock, 19, of Tanhouse Lane, Wokingham, Berkshire. Also facing the charge is Stephen Barclay, 50, of caravan park, Redbridge Hollow, Oxford, Gavin Medd-Hall, 44, of Selwood Road, Croydon, Surrey, and Daniel Wadham, 20, of Brynmair, Aberdare, South Wales.

The two facing a charge of blackmail are Dianne Jamieson, 59, of Lytham Road, Ashton-on-Ribble, Lancashire, and Suzanne Jaggers, 35, of Upper Sackville St, Skipton, North Yorkshire. Jamieson is due to appear at Preston Magistrates' Court and Jaggers at Skipton Magistrates' Court, both at dates to be set.