LONDON — Three people have been arrested under counter-spying laws on suspicion of assisting Russian intelligence.

The Metropolitan Police said two men and one woman were arrested in the Grays area of Essex on Wednesday.

The 41-year-old man, a 35-year-old woman and a 46-year-old man were all apprehended under section 3 of the National Security Act, as part of an investigation led by the Met’s Counter Terrorism Command.

The force said that all three were arrested on suspicion of “assisting a foreign intelligence service,” adding: “The country to which the allegations relate is Russia.”

Commander Dominic Murphy, head of the counter terrorism command, said: “Through our recent national security casework, we’re seeing an increasing number of [people] who we would describe as ‘proxies’ being recruited by foreign intelligence services.”

Murphy highlighted that two British men are awaiting sentencing after being recruited by the Wagner Group — a private military outfit funded by the Russian state — to carry out arson at a Ukraine-linked warehouse. He added that Wednesday’s arrests are unrelated to this case.

“But anyone who might be contacted by and tempted into carrying out criminal activity on behalf of a foreign state here in the U.K. should think again,” Murphy said.

POLITICO has approached the U.K. government for comment.