solicitor John Broughton has told of his arrest by National Crime Squad officers investigating money laundering offences.

He was taken into custody on Wednesday morning as detectives swooped on his office in Devonshire Street, Keighley.

They spent several hours combing the building and removing papers and equipment, and he was taken to a police station in Lancashire for questioning.

Back working at his office yesterday, Mr Broughton said: "To put the issue in true perspective I was questioned on Wednesday, June 25, 2003, by the police who were making inquiries with me about one conveyancing transaction for the sale of a house by a client in 1997."

Ten other people, including two other solicitors and a legal assistant, were arrested in Lancashire and have also been released on bail without charge until September 18.

The arrests follow inquiries resulting from Operation Norfolk, a drug trafficking investigation conducted by officers from the Chorley branch of the National Crime Squad. Mr Broughton, in his early 50s, who lives in Foulridge, near Colne, has been a solicitor in Keighley since the late 1970s.

A colleague, who did not want to be named, said: "He is a highly regarded, good academic and practical lawyer who has never given anybody to believe he is other than a first rate, highly respectable solicitor. What has happened is profoundly shocking."

A National Crime Squad spokesman said the other solicitors' offices involved were in Blackburn, Burnley, Earby and Clitheroe.

In addition, a man from Burnley was arrested in Malaga, Spain, by Spanish police and his extradition to the UK was being sought.

The arrests relate to the case involving Matthew Glover, of Cliviger, Lancashire, who earlier this year, with ten others, was convicted of conspiracy to supply class A drugs.