Former Murdoch Editor Is Said to Be Arrested

The police said in a statement that a total of six people in and outside of London had been arrested on Tuesday as part of Operation Weeting, the criminal investigation into phone hacking and other illegal activities at the News of the World and other newspapers. None were formally charged with crimes; in the British system, that can occur months later, or not at all.

Following standard procedure, the police statement did not identify those arrested. But a person with knowledge of the arrests said that besides Ms. Brooks and her husband, they included Mark Hanna, the head of security for News International.

The police statement said the six had been arrested between 5 a.m. and 7 a.m. and were being interrogated at different police stations on suspicion of “conspiracy to pervert the course of justice,” the British equivalent of obstruction of justice. This could relate to activities like destroying e-mails, computers and other evidence, people with knowledge of the investigation said.

Two former editorial staff members at News International said that they were hearing from inside the company that the questioning was related to email messages that were deleted before the police widened their phone hacking investigation last year.

Ms. Brooks, 43, is a confidante of Mr. Murdoch and erstwhile friend of Mr. Cameron, who attended her wedding to Mr. Brooks 2009. She worked as the editor of the now-defunct News of the World and the editor of The Sun tabloid before being named chief executive of News International, the British newspaper arm of Mr. Murdoch’s media empire. Before Tuesday’s arrest, she had already been arrested in the police operation — last summer, on suspicion of phone hacking and illegally paying the police.

So far, the police have arrested but not yet charged more than 40 people in Operation Weeting and two other ancillary investigations: Operation Tuleta, which is looking into accusations of computer hacking, and Operation Elveden, which is looking into accusations that journalists paid police officers and government officials for information.

Ms. Brooks is the highest-ranking News International official to be arrested so far. Andy Coulson, a former News of the World editor who went on to become the chief spokesman for the prime minister, was also arrested last summer as part of Operation Weeting. Other suspects include some of the most prominent reporters and editors at The News of the World and The Sun, a Murdoch-owned tabloid that is Britain’s most popular daily newspaper.

Ms. Brooks and Mr. Coulson have consistently maintained that they knew nothing about phone hacking or other illegal activities. David Wilson, a spokesman for the Brookses, did not return a call seeking comment.

According to a statement from the Metropolitan Police, the ages of the suspects arrested Tuesday ranged from 38 to 49, and all but one were men. Five were arrested at home: two in Oxfordshire (these are believed to be the Brookses); one in Hampshire; one in West London; one in Hertfordshire; and one in East London. The sixth suspect, the police said, was arrested at a business address in East London.

It is unclear what Mr. Brooks, a horse trainer with strong conservative ties who appears to have been drawn into the investigation by virtue of his marriage, is suspected of doing. But The Guardian reported in July that he was involved in an peculiar episode featuring a mysterious laptop left in a bag in a garbage can in an underground parking garage near the London apartment he shares with his wife.

According to the article, the bag containing the computer, as well as some papers, was unearthed by security guards, who called the police. Mr. Brooks then tried to reclaim the items, but could not prove they were his.

A spokesman for Mr. Brooks told The Guardian that he had “left the bag with a friend who was returning it, but dropped it in the wrong part of the garage.” When asked how the bag ended up in a garbage can, the spokesman replied: “The suggestion is that a cleaner thought it was rubbish and put it in the bin” and said that it was “nothing to do with Rebekah,” the newspaper said.

Mr. Brooks was in the news when it emerged last month that the police had loaned his wife, then working for News International, a police horse which had been retired from active service. The loan was relevant because of the close ties between Ms. Brooks and the police, and because of the close ties between Mr. and Ms. Brooks and Prime Minister Cameron.

After days of deflections and denials, Mr. Cameron admitted that he had gone riding at the Brooks’s country estate and that he had ridden the former police horse, Raisa.

“I’ve been friends with Charlie Brooks for over 30 years, and he’s a good friend and a neighbor of my constituency,” Mr. Cameron said by way of an explanation.