Spy chiefs probed ‘Russian double agent' at the heart of MI6 in huge 20-year global operation – and never caught ‘mole'

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A source claimed MI6 'still [potentially] has a mole to find'
FROM RUSSIA WITH LOVE Spy chiefs probed 'Russian double agent' at the heart of MI6 in huge 20-year global operation – and never caught 'mole'
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SPY chiefs probed a suspected "Russian double agent" at the heart of MI6 in a 20-year global operation.
An investigation launched into the alleged mole, dubbed Operation Wedlock, sent surveillance officers around the world.
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High-ranking member of British intelligence and double agent Kim Philby
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A KGB guide smuggled him into Russia where he lived out the remainder of his life and was treated as a 'hero'
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The MI6 Building in Vauxhall, London
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It included a team of over 30 MI5 officers, as reported by the Guardian, whose work spanned up to two decades.
One on occasion, they were sent to the Middle East and sheltered in a CIA safe house.
It is understood they were sent on the mission under terms that would have been illegal according to international law.
Despite their work, MI5 were unable to conclude whether there had been a mole spying for Russia.
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A source told the Guardian: "We thought we had another Philby on our hands".
Kim Philby was a prominent member of the notorious Cambridge Five, a ring of spies who passed information to the Soviet Union.
With fascism plaguing Europe, Philby headed for Austria where he became active in helping the oppressed working class socialists.
Alongside his wife, Jewish socialist Litzi Friedmann, the couple helped the anti-fascist cause in Vienna but later fled to London to escape the Nazis.
Philby's life changed when he was introduced to a resident Soviet agent, code-named "Otto", at Regents Park.
Along with four other Cambridge students, they were persuaded to start double lives as spies for the Soviets.
Through the help of the KGB they worked their way into government jobs and passed on state secrets to the Russians.
Philby was so good at his job he even secured a high-level job with MI6.
In 1949 he was sent to Washington where be became a liaison intelligence officer 'combating Soviet subversion in Western Europe'.
However, after two members of the Cambridge Five defected, suspicion grew over Philby and he resigned from the Foreign Office.
Cleared of treason allegations, MI6 posted him to Beirut, where he worked as a correspondent for The Observer.
In 1962, his cover was blown during a conversation with a MI5 officer at a party and he later made a 'sham' confession to be granted immunity.
A year later a KGB guide smuggled him into Russia where he lived out the remainder of his life and was treated as a 'hero'.
MI6 is the intelligence agency which supplies the Government with foreign intelligence (as opposed to MI5 which deals with domestic security threats).
Its existence was not formally acknowledged until 1994. It is regarded as one of the best spy agencies in the world.
Describing its work on its official website, the agency says: 'Our mission is to provide Her Majesty's Government with a global covert capability.
'We collect secret intelligence and mount operations overseas to prevent and detect serious crime, and promote and defend the national security and economic wellbeing of the United Kingdom.'
Meanwhile, MI5 is widely understood to focus its intelligence efforts inside the UK but that isn't always the case.
With threats to Britain's security often coming from abroad, the agency says it does "work outside the UK where it's necessary to protect the UK's national security or to counter security threats".
It describes itself as a "publicly accountable civilian intelligence organisation", not a "secret police force", as it does not have the power to arrest people.
Reporting to the Home Office, it was formed in 1909 under British army captain Vernon Kell to identify and counteract German spies in the country, according to the Britannica.
The MI5 probe into an alleged mole was sparked in the 1990s and continued to at least 2015.
It was launched after a tip off from the CIA in America, where they believed a British intelligence officer was working for Russia.
Vladimir Putin was in charge of the FSB, Russia's secret intelligence service, at one point in the investigation.
A source said: '[We were told] the target was a Russian spy. The US believed he was leaking information to the Russians.
"He was suspect 1A. The job was taken more seriously than any other [MI5] was involved in. Wedlock eclipsed them all.'
As reported by the Guardian, it has been revealed the UK believed they had identified the alleged spy.
MI5 specialists were put in charge of tracking him down, although they did not operate from the Westminster HQ.
The mission was so top secret, one insider claimed the officer in charge was briefed about the task in a church.
Instead, the team were based in Wandsworth, south London, which was near an MI6 base.
The officers were told the suspected mole held a senior role at MI6 and listening devices were planted inside his home, as well as secret cameras.
He was tracked across the world, with officers travelling as far as Asia and the Middle East.
The agents were given authentic passports, but fake names, and told they would be "on their own" if caught.
A source also claimed the suspect was not thought to have been working by himself, but aided by two other people.
The insider added how Wedlock was a 'highly unusual operation, the longest in recent memory and probably the most expensive'.
'MI5 never got the conclusive proof it was looking for,' they added, and MI6 "still [potentially] has a mole to find".
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Photos, of clockwise from top left: Anthony Blunt, Guy Burgess (who died in Moscow in 1963), Donald MacLean and Kim Philby, who tipped off Burgess and MacLean in 1951 forcing them to defect and then defecting himself in 1963
Credit: PA
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Harold Philby, 43-year-old former First Secretary at the British Embassy in Washington
Credit: PA