DETECTIVES have been granted extra time to question a man widely named as the British army's most notorious IRA agent Stakeknife.
A team of English detectives probing claims of murder, kidnap and torture, detained the 72-year-old suspect at an undisclosed location on Tuesday, a statement from Operation Kenova said.
Officers have subsequently been allowed a further 36 hours to question the man believed to be Freddie Scappaticci.
In 2003 Scappaticci was named as the agent known as Stakeknife. He gave several interviews denying the allegations before fleeing his west Belfast home for a secret location in England.
Bedfordshire Police Chief Constable Jon Boutcher is investigating the high-ranking Army mole who reputedly led the republican organisation's "nutting squad", an internal security unit which brutally interrogated and murdered suspected spies during the Northern Ireland conflict.
Dozens of detectives are probing more than 50 murders and have already spoken to 40 families.
Almost 50 detectives have been working on the Stakeknife investigation.
As well as multiple murders, the investigation team is examining evidence of other alleged offences committed by Stakeknife and his army handlers during the Troubles, they include attempted murders and unlawful imprisonments.
A number of Police Ombudsman for Northern Ireland investigators are understood to be present following the arrest as part of their probe into allegations of police misconduct in the 1970s, 80s and 90s.
