ARMED police stormed a farm where two SAS soldiers and one of their wives are suspected of running a drugs ring.
Military and civilian police launched a joint operation against the elite Who Dares Wins troops in farm buildings in rural Herefordshire.
One of the men was a non-commissioned officer with at least 10 years service in the regiment and string of operational medals, the Daily Mail revealed.
The Mail said "quantities of a suspicious substance were found and removed for analysis".
The suspects’ identities have not been revealed due to long-standing rules over not naming serving members of UK Special Forces for fear of terrorist reprisals.
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The trio have since been released on bail, on suspicion of class A drug offences.
The MoD said it was “aware of an investigation” but insisted it would be “inappropriate to comment further.”
The Sun understands the raid was led by MoD police, not Red Cap military police, assisted by armed civilian officers from West Mercia police.
The arable farm was close to the SAS headquarters in Credenhill, Hereford.
It is unclear whether a military or civilian constabulary would lead the investigation, the Mail reported.
And it comes as the world-famous regiment is already under the spotlight over alleged extra-judicial killings in Afghanistan.
A judge-led enquiry is looking at claims SAS troops killed more than 50 detainees on night raids against suspected Taliban fighters.
It heard how SAS bosses allegedly wiped a computer server to cover up evidence of killings.
Files were “forensically deleted” so they could never be recovered, lawyers claimed.
The “highly suspicious” move was in breach of direct orders and may have been “a criminal attempt to pervert the course of justice,” the High Court heard.
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SAS troops are accused of more than 50 extra-judicial killings in war-torn southern Afghanistan between 2010 and 2013.
The inquiry’s lead counsel Oliver Glasglow, KC, said the computers were likely loaded with “highly relevant emails and other documents” for a multiple homicide probe.
Red Cap police demanded the computers as part of their 2015 Operation Northmoor probe into illegal killings in Afghanistan.
But Special Forces commanders refused to surrender the computers until the following year, by which time the key files had vanished.
The troops used software called S-Delete to thwart forensic investigators, the court heard.
It over wrote the files with zeros to erase all trace of what was there.
A Special Forces officer grilled by the inquiry claimed he was not aware that S-Delete had been used.
Asked if he should known, he said: “Yep.”
SAS insiders, whose motto is Who Dares Wins, first raised the alarm in 2011 after a suspicious number of raids led to prisoners being killed after they had been detained.
The inquiry was launched in the wake of legal challenges to the Government by Leigh Day solicitors on behalf of the Saifullah and Noorzai families.
A Ministry of Defence spokesperson said: “We are aware of an investigation, but it would be inappropriate to comment further.”
Herefordshire police said the Ministry of Defence was leading on the operation and couldn't comment further.
