Members of Easton-based anarchist social centre BASE recently discovered that they’re being monitored by counter-terrorist police, after a man was recalled to prison after attending one of its events.
Toby Shone was initially arrested on terrorism and drugs charges in November 2020, as part of a wider police operation named Op Adream. Police believed Toby was the editor of the 325nostate.net anarchist website, which they said contained material that encouraged terrorism.
The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) also found psychedelic drugs during the raid on his home and charged Toby with terrorism and drugs offences. He denied all charges, and on the eve of Toby’s court case, the CPS indicated it was dropping the terrorism allegations against him. It offered no explanation for the sudden change of heart.
Toby was convicted of possession and intent to supply Class A and B drugs, and sentenced to three years and nine months in prison. Despite not being convicted of any terror offences, Toby’s supporters say he was – and is being – treated like a terrorist in prison. When he was released, in December 2022, it was under heavy restrictions and monitoring by the multi-agency National Security Division (NSD), which manages terror cases.
Last September he was recalled to prison after being arrested by armed police acting on the orders of Counter Terrorism Policing South West (CTPSW). The grounds for the 46-year-old’s arrest were that he hadn’t complied with his probation licence conditions when he was released part way through his prison sentence.
Police say he breached his conditions by attending a letter-writing event at BASE, and using a phone that wasn’t registered with his probation officer. Toby said he did not submit details of the phone he was using as many of his comrades had already been spied on by undercover police and didn’t want them to be subject to further surveillance.
Legal papers served to Toby showed BASE was under ongoing surveillance and monitoring by CTPSW, and that police officers had compiled ‘evidence’ about events being held at the Easton social centre.
BASE members, in a collective statement, said they were shocked to hear of Toby’s recall to prison and to find out that they were being monitored:
“There is a suggestion that there is some shadowy criminal anarchist group behind BASE so that the cops can expand their fantasy of ‘anarchist terror’ where a social centre is somewhere that people become groomed and radicalised and where glorification and funding of terrorism are rampant,” it said.
“Back in the real world, BASE is a much-loved and long-standing autonomous social centre that hosts community dinners, bike workshops, [and] talks on a diverse range of topics from social justice and prisoner solidarity to environmental and cultural topics.”
BASE also ran a community mutual-aid project during the Covid pandemic.
