A 31-year-old man from Swindon in southern England has appeared in court in London after being accused of passing information about drone manufacturing facilities to individuals linked to Russian military intelligence.
Joshua Cammidge has been charged under Britain’s National Security Act with assisting a foreign intelligence service and preparing to commit an act of sabotage.
Prosecutors allege that Cammidge sent Google Maps images identifying the location of a drone factory and four other sites connected to drone production in Swindon.
He is also accused of offering to carry out an act of sabotage himself. According to prosecutors, he sought information about a device capable of disrupting Wi-Fi signals and personally visited several of the sites.
The Crown Prosecution Service said the information was allegedly provided to an individual believed to have links to the so-called GRU Volunteer Corps, which British authorities describe as being controlled by Russia’s military intelligence service, the GRU.
Investigators say the alleged activity took place between late March and early September. Frank Ferguson, a senior prosecutor with the Crown Prosecution Service’s Counter Terrorism Division, said the decision to prosecute followed an investigation by counterterrorism police.
Cammidge did not enter a plea during a hearing at Westminster Magistrates’ Court and was remanded in custody. The case has been transferred to the Old Bailey, where he is due to appear again on September 25.
The case comes amid heightened tensions between Britain and Russia. Relations between the two countries have been severely strained by previous incidents, including the 2006 poisoning of former Russian intelligence officer Alexander Litvinenko in London and the 2018 nerve-agent attack in Salisbury targeting former Russian intelligence officer Sergei Skripal and his daughter.
Britain has remained one of Ukraine’s leading European supporters since Russia launched its full-scale invasion in 2022.
Swindon has also become an important center for the production of military drones in Britain, making facilities in the area a potential target of heightened security concerns amid growing fears over Russian espionage and sabotage activities in Europe.
