PHONE PLOT Cops snared ‘terrorist’ Daniel Khalife after bugging phones of people linked to fugitive

COPS snared suspected terrorist Daniel Khalife after bugging the phones of people linked to the fugitive.

The Met Police combined forces with MI5 and M16 to catch ex-soldier Khalife after his escape from Wandsworth Prison on Wednesday morning.

Intercepted messages led them to a house in Richmond, South West London - where they missed Khalife by minutes.

But just hours later undercover cops dragged Khalife off a bicycle and wrestled him to the ground on a canal towpath in Northolt.

The Mail reports that the hunt for Khalife was directed from the government's new counter-intelligence "nerve centre" - with counter-terror cops and MI5, M16 and GCHQ spies working under one roof.

Two guards at Wandsworth Prison have been suspended after Khalife's escape, the newspaper also claimed.

Both of the guards are thought to have been tasked with overseeing the exit of the Bidfood catering van later known to have been carrying Khalife from the prison.

The trail for Khalife went cold after the raid on the Richmond address - until he was seen in nearby Chiswick.

Cops got an eavesdropping warrant after the breakthrough, and received intelligence that Khalife was heading for the Grand Union Canal in Greenford.

Khalife was soon caught in a massive dragnet of specialist plain-clothes officers on the canal towpath.Armed police yelled “Don’t move or we’ll shoot” as they finally caught jailbreak terror suspect.

The ex-soldier laughed at cops and winked at passers-by as he was cuffed following four days on the run.

Officers hid on a grassy verge behind a wall near a canal towpath before pouncing at 10.41am.

They dragged him off a bicycle, believed to be stolen, wrestled him to the floor then pinned him against the underside of a bridge.

'LAUGHING' FUGITIVE

It brought to an end one of the biggest police searches in recent years — involving 150 anti-terror cops and an all-ports alert.

Khalife had appeared like any normal cyclist pedalling in the sunshine next to the Grand Union Canal in Northolt, West London — 12 miles from Wandsworth Prison, which he escaped on Wednesday.

Wearing a T-shirt, shorts and trainers, he also had a sleeping bag, change of clothes, bottle of water and a Waitrose cool bag which appeared to contain food.

It was unclear how he managed to get the items, and if he had help.

Student Ethan Andrews, 20, witnessed the arrest and asked officers if it was the same man he had seen in news reports.

He said: “The guy looked up at me, winked and started laughing. I thought, how arrogant is that?

“I can’t believe he was just sitting there, looked at me and just winked.”

Laughing can be heard in a video taken by Ethan of Khalife sitting on the ground surrounded by officers.

Another witness said Khalife tried to claim he was innocent and said: “It’s not me. I haven’t done anything.”

An exclusive photo obtained by The Sun on Sunday shows Khalife staring at onlookers while being led to a van at 11.20am.

Met counter-terrorism boss Commander Dominic Murphy said more than 150 of his officers had been involved in catching Khalife.

He said the fugitive was “fully co-operative and handcuffed and arrested”.

CLOSING IN

Khalife, formerly in the Royal Signals, had been on the run for 75 hours after strapping himself to the bottom of a food delivery lorry at the jail.

He was wearing a prison-issue chef’s uniform at the time.

Tonight he was in custody on suspicion of being unlawfully at large and being an escaped prisoner.

On Friday night the search was narrowed to Chiswick, West London, amid two reported sightings of Khalife — the last in Church Street near the Thames.

Officers were seen going door-to-door to search gardens, inspect car boots and ask residents for their IDs.

More than 100 calls had been made to police with tips and possible sightings, after Scotland Yard offered a £20,000 reward for information.

An investigation is under way as to how Khalife broke out of the Category B prison given he was charged under the Official Secrets Act with trying to pass information to a hostile state, and with leaving a hoax bomb at his military base.

Sources told The Sun on Sunday that Khalife had bragged to other prisoners that he had attempted the escape around ten days earlier but abandoned it after the straps broke.

He is believed to have then made the material stronger before breaking out on Wednesday.

It was not clear where Khalife was being held last night.

He was likely to end up in a Category A jail such as Belmarsh in South East London.