Phone hacking investigators have arrested Greg Miskiw, pictured here during his time at News International (Image: The Independent)

Metropolitan Police detectives have arrested Greg Miskiw, a former newsdesk executive at the News of the World, on suspicion of involvement in phone hacking.

Scotland Yard said on Wednesday afternoon that detectives from Operation Weeting, the police investigation into phone hacking, had arrested a 61-year-old man by appointment at a London police station. He was held on suspicion of unlawful interception of communications and conspiring to intercept communications.*

Miskiw is a former news editor at the News of the World, and played a key role in the day-to-day activities of the now-defunct tabloid's newsdesk under the editorships of Rebekah Brooks and Andy Coulson.

He left the paper several years ago and now lives in a coastal residence in Florida. Miskiw told a reporter last month that he had been in contact with police "for some time" and planned to return to Britain voluntarily in order to assist with inquiries.

Sean Hoare, a former News of the World and The Sun journalist who died last month, recalled in conversations with The New York Times how Miskiw had been able to obtain precise information about the location of an individual based on their mobile number. He alleged that such information may have been obtained through the use of police technology.

Miskiw's role previously came under scrutiny in civil cases brought against the News of the World's publisher. Several pages of notes seized from the News of the World's disgraced private investigator Glenn Mulcaire were marked with the denotation "Greg", taken to be a reference to Miskiw.

Miskiw is the twelfth person to be arrested by detectives working on the investigation into allegations of newspaper phone hacking. His ex-partner Terenia Taras was also arrested by Operation Weeting detectives earlier this year and is currently out on police bail.

Others to have been arrested include Coulson, Brooks and the former managing editor Stuart Kuttner, the latter of whom was arrested last week. A number of arrests have taken place with the assistance of detectives from Operation Elveden, the police probe into allegations of illegal payments to police officers.

* UPDATE, 11 August | The Metropolitan Police said on Thursday morning that Miskiw had been released on bail until October.

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