A SERVING police officer has been arrested in connection with alleged illegal payments connected to the phone hacking scandal.
The 29-year-old male officer, who serves with the Met's Territorial Policing command, was arrested at his central London police station early yesterday morning.
He is being questioned by detectives on suspicion of corruption, misconduct in a public office and conspiracy in relation to the offences.
Scotland Yard also confirmed that four current and former employees of The Sun newspaper, aged between 42 and 56, have also been arrested.
The suspects were all detained as part of Operation Elveden, which runs alongside the Operations Weeting hacking inquiry.
Elveden was launched after officers were handed documents suggesting News International journalists made illegal payments to police officers.
A Scotland Yard spokesman said: "Today's operation is the result of information provided to police by News Corporation's management and standards committee. It relates to suspected payments to police officers and is not about seeking journalists to reveal confidential sources in relation to information that has been obtained legitimately."
It is understood that the arrested journalists are ex-deputy editor Fergus Shanahan, ex-managing editor Graham Dudman, crime editor Mike Sullivan and head of news Chris Pharo.
Three of them were arrested at their homes between 6am and 8am yesterday, while the fourth arrest was made at 11am when the suspect attended an east London police station.
They are being questioned on suspicion of corruption, aiding and abetting misconduct in a public office and conspiracy in relation to the offences.
Deborah Glass, deputy chair of the Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC), which is supervising the investigation, said: "I am satisfied with the strenuous efforts being made by this investigation to identify police officers who may have taken corrupt payments - the results will speak for themselves.
So far in the Elveden investigation, Scotland Yard has arrested 13 suspects and the IPCC has arrested one.
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