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Earlier this year Great Britain set up a special unit to investigate animal rights extremism. The first major result of that has been the arrest of 29 suspected animal rights activists who are alleged to have taken part in a scheme to defraud Britain's Department of Education and Skills.
The department has a program that provides money for people to study outside of the traditional educational system. Animal rights activists are alleged to have fraudulently applied for funds from this program, which they then used to conduct surveillance directed at animal researchers, fund animal rights activity, and to provide financial support for the activists while they were busy engaging in animal rights activities.
On September 28, 11 suspects were arrested in connection with the investigation. They made bail but were not formally charged at that time. On October 4, an additional 18 suspects were arrested in connection with the alleged fraud scheme.
Britain's National Crime Squad said that it believes some of those arrested were "key players" in animal rights extremism in Great Britain.
Sources:
Animal rights suspects held in fraud swoop. Nick Allen, Press Association, October 4, 2001.
Animal rights activists arrested. The Independent (London), October 5, 2001.