British police apprehend the public face of Anonymous

As the law enforcement crackdown against hacktivist groups Anonymous and LulzSec continued, British law enforcement on Wednesday announced the apprehension of "Topiary," a 19-year-old man from the Shetland Islands north of Scotland who has served as the spokesperson for the group.

Police were said to still be searching the residence where the individual was apprehended, as well as talking to a 17-year-old in the municipality of Lincolnshire in east central England in connection with the arrested. The person had not been charged or arrested.

"Today's operation is linked to PCeU's ongoing investigation into network intrusions and Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks against a number of international businesses and intelligence agencies by what is believed to be the same hacking group," a statement from the Metropolitan Police said.

Topiary was the man behind the statement "You cannot arrest an idea," which was tweeted to his followers after law enforcement arrested more than a dozen connected with the two groups earlier this month. He originally was a part of the group LulzSec, but continued his public relations work for Anonymous after the two groups merged in late June.

Unlike past arrests, a quick scan of Anonymous' various Twitter feeds showed no mention of Topiary's arrest, just business as usual, including several mentions of its continuing retaliation against PayPal associated with the aforementioned arrests.