UK cop loses terror file data stick

London, Sept.13 : A TRAFFIC cop has lost a computer memory stick containing top-secret information on ruthless Muslim terrorists.

The Sun reports that the memory stick contains details of every deadly terror cell currently being tracked by police in the West Midlands.

"This could wreck a lot of operations and lead to possible arrests being aborted. The whole thing is a bloody mess," the tabloid quoted a source, as saying.

Senior officers were said to be "spitting mad" at the cop's "blinding error" and are pulling out all the stops to find the stick.

It is understood that Home Secretary Jacqui Smith has already been informed of the incident.

The black 4GB stick is designed to update police computers so extremists under surveillance are not pulled over for routine checks by unsuspecting cops.

Normally it is kept under lock and key at Castle Vale police station near Birmingham.

But the unnamed traffic officer took it out to plug into the ANPR (Automatic Number Plate Recognition) system fitted in his police car.

He put the stick in his pocket when he was called away to deal with a car crash.

He then went on other callouts - before realizing at the end of his shift, that the stick was missing.

Anti-terror operations all over Britain have been thrown into jeopardy.

The hunt for the stick took a new twist when the police switchboard received an anonymous call from a phone box where the officer had been involved with a row with a member of public.

The caller described the stick in exact detail mentioning its colour and the Sello tape attached to it.

Detectives traced the phone box and raided a house nearby yesterday, after discovering the name of the mystery caller.

ANI