Using encrypted messaging apps and cash incentives, Iranian intelligence is seeking to enlist people from across the continent to carry out surveillance operations and potentially violent attacks, including assassinations, The i Paper can reveal. <\/p>\n
Channels on the messaging platform Telegram openly advertise \u201cjobs\u201d with Iran\u2019s intelligence agency in a recruitment drive mirroring techniques used by Russian intelligence. The methods have raised concerns among counterterrorism officials that Tehran is increasingly outsourcing espionage and hostile operations to loosely connected proxies and criminals.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey will literally hire anyone to commit arson, criminal damage, assault,\u201d a Whitehall counter-terror source said, noting a \u201ctrend\u201d whereby \u201cprofessional criminals are recruited for the more sophisticated operations\u201d.<\/p>\n
One channel on the platform, which security officials believe is linked to Iranian intelligence, uses an automated Telegram bot to invite users to \u201cwork with Iranian intelligence in a tested, safe environment\u201d.<\/p>\n
Posts from the bot claim Tehran\u2019s intelligence agencies recruit operatives \u201cfrom all over the world regardless of incentives\u201d. Another message urges members to \u201cjoin us\u201d and not \u201clet your hidden talents and abilities go to waste\u201d.<\/p>\n
Western security officials say the overt and deliberate language represents a step-change in Tehran\u2019s approach to recruitment, highlighting the increasing tensions between the UK and Iran as conflict in the Middle East intensifies<\/a>.<\/p>\n According to a UK intelligence source, the recruitment model frequently involves individuals being hired for simple assignments, such as taking a photograph of a sensitive site or building. <\/p>\n In some cases, the intermediary who accepts the job may then recruit others, often local low-level criminals, to help complete the task for cash. <\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s not all willing accomplices,\u201d the UK intelligence source added. \u201cIt can also be naive individuals or pure criminality\u2026 unemployed and vulnerable people but also random criminals identified through illegal online marketplaces.\u201d<\/p>\n In response to The i Paper\u2019s findings, former home secretary Dame Priti Patel urged the Government to put considerable resources into tackling the growing threat from Tehran<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cBritain has world class intelligence and security services who conduct offensive operations in order to protect our homeland security,\u201d she said. \u201cNow is the time for the Government to ensure they are putting in the essential leadership and resources to take down every Iranian threat to British citizens and to the security of our country.\u201d<\/p>\n Tactics from the Kremlin\u2019s playbook<\/p>\n The strategy reflects what security analysts call a \u201cgrey-zone\u201d approach to operations designed to harass or intimidate opponents while preserving an arm\u2019s-length deniability.<\/p>\n Similar techniques have been used by Russian intelligence in the recruitment of proxies to carry out sabotage attacks in the UK<\/a>. During a four-week trial at the Old Bailey, the jury heard how a county lines drug dealer, Dylan Earl, was radicalised by a stream of pro-Kremlin propaganda on Telegram.<\/p>\n He began talking to people claiming to represent Wagner<\/a> operatives using an account called \u201cPrivet Bot\u201d and soon conjured up a plan to set fire to units at Cromwell Industrial Estate in Leyton, east London \u2013 destroying around \u00a3100,000 worth of humanitarian aid destined for Ukraine.<\/p>\n The latest revelations come amid increased concern that Moscow and Tehran are sharing intelligence and military equipment in their fight against the West.<\/p>\n Spies for hire<\/p>\n One of the clearest examples came in 2023, when Magomed-Husejn Dovtaev, an Austrian national, was convicted of spying for Tehran after carrying out surveillance on the west London headquarters of the Farsi-language TV network Iran International<\/a>.<\/p>\n The reconnaissance was part of a wider plot by others to stage a terrorist attack against the broadcaster \u2013 a frequent target of threats from Tehran.<\/p>\n Roger Macmillan, who served as the network\u2019s head of security at the time, said the case illustrated how easily Tehran can recruit operatives across Europe. <\/p>\n \u201cThe Iranians will pay anybody,\u201d he said. \u201cThey just don\u2019t care\u201d. <\/p>\n Macmillan said gig-economy recruitment is \u201cimportant\u201d for the Iranians because they \u201ccan\u2019t afford to have networks of people\u201d, instead hiring would-be spies with no \u201cdegree of sophistication\u201d about them.<\/p>\n Asked why he had taken photos of Iran International\u2019s offices, Dovtaev told the Old Bailey he \u201cquite simply liked it\u201d and was \u201cin wonder at the architecture\u201d. He was found guilty of one charge of attempting to collect information useful for terrorism and sentenced to three years and six months in prison. <\/p>\n Crackdown on Iranian intelligence<\/p>\n The targeting of journalists and dissidents critical of the regime has been a consistent feature of Iran\u2019s overseas operations. But there are fears that these groups will now be repurposed for an attack on British soil in retaliation for Donald Trump\u2019s military strikes on Iran. In the past week British intelligence has increased its monitoring of known Iranian sleeper cells<\/a> and proxy groups in the UK, this paper previously revealed.<\/p>\n On Friday, four men were arrested in north London and Hertfordshire on suspicion of working for Iranian intelligence in a plot to surveil and monitor individuals and sites linked to the Jewish community.<\/p>\n The arrests were part of a months-long counter-terror investigation, which also saw six other men in north London arrested for assisting the suspects. Detectives investigating the case have been granted more time to question the individuals as part of a probe into the suspected Iranian spy cell.<\/p>\n Following the arrests, Sir Keir Starmer said: \u201cOur world-leading security services will not hesitate to protect you.<\/p>\n \u201cThere are some who will use moments like this to divide people. It is vital that we now come together as a nation, united in our common purpose.\u201d<\/p>\n Iranian plots overseas took a further dent this week after Yahya Hosseini Panjaki, an Iranian intelligence officer accused by US authorities of directing global assassination plots, was killed during Trump\u2019s strikes on Tehran. <\/p>\n A Foreign Office source told The i Paper that Panjaki acted as a bridge between Iran\u2019s Ministry of Intelligence and Security and the powerful Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps<\/a> and was \u201cvery involved\u201d in spy plots overseas.<\/p>\n Despite Panjaki\u2019s death, the Whitehall counter-terror source said there would be \u201cthree layers of succession\u201d ready to step into his place, and warned that the broader networks he helped build remain active.<\/p>\n In response to US strikes on the country, Iran\u2019s online propaganda linked on recruitment channels has intensified. In recent days, posts have circulated showing videos and satellite images that Iran-linked channels claim show strikes on Western targets, including the UK\u2019s RAF base in Cyprus.<\/p>\n \t\tYour next read<\/p>\n![\"March](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/SEI_201499234-e1765556257789.jpg\")
A group of young British men have been found guilty of working for state-backed Russian mercenaries to start a fire at an industrial estate in Leyton, east London, in March 2024 (Photo: LFB)<\/p>\n![\"Police](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/SEI_288132482.jpg\")
Police enter a property in Watford, believed to be linked to four arrests made on Friday morning on suspicion of spying for Iran (Photo: Jamie Lashmar\/PA)<\/p>\n
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