The group, Marcus Armstrong (46) from Milton Keynes, Chris Bluemel (35) from Southampton, and Angie Zelter (55) from Norfolk, spent some time in the plane before being arrested by civilian police. Another group, Sarah Lasenby (68) from Oxford, Douglas Shaw (56) and Jean Oliver (48), both from Biggar, and Matt Bury (50) from Somerset, also took part in the investigation and are now in custody in Kilmarnock police station. They are all expected to appear in Ayr Sheriff Court on Tuesday.

Air freighters run by Atlas Air, a civilian airline contracted to the US military, were spotted at Prestwick on 5th August and one of them is suspected of carrying armaments, which could include "bunker buster" bombs tipped with depleted uranium. The Detectives have looked for evidence of such flights and attempted to interview security personnel.

The Detectives said: "We acted as War Crime Detectives. Britain is breaching international law by allowing Prestwick to be used by the US to fly bombs to Israel. Britain is also defying the law by deploying weapons of mass destruction and developing a new generation of these weapons. We need a international humanitarian law to restrain warmongering governments. It is vital that international law is upheld and equally vital that ordinary citizens take the initiative in exposing state crime.

The US military air traffic here is more extensive than we had known. The security is extremely lax."

Trident Ploughshares is an open and non-violent campaign against the UK’s nuclear weapons. At the same time as the War Crime Detectives were at Prestwick, fellow activists at the Trident Ploughshares camp at Coulport on Loch Long were planning further actions against the nuclear weapon bases there, RNAD Coulport and Faslane.

A spokesperson said: "The weapons which devastated Hiroshima and Nagasaki 61 years ago are still a horrifying reality. As our friends expose the crimes at Prestwick we will be active at this end of the chain of terror. For the US Israel is a key strategic partner, especially because of Middle East oil. As a result anything they do is played down and their nuclear weapons are accepted, all of which undermines international law."

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