A woman who police are only describing as a "public official" today became the 77th person arrested by police investigating possibly illegal payments by journalists.
The 45-year-old was held in Malton, North Yorkshire, shortly after 7am on suspicion of misconduct in public office and conspiracy to cause misconduct in public office, and is being questioned at a police station in the county.
Scotland Yard refused to reveal details of the woman's job. She was arrested by the Metropolitan Police as part of Operation Elveden inquiry. Police watchdog the Independent Police Complaints Commission has also made its own three arrests in connection with this matter.
In August, Scotland Yard admitted that another 19 people had been interviewed under caution, information that had not previously been made public.
Operation Elveden is being run alongside two other investigations – Operation Weeting, an inquiry into alleged phone hacking, and Operation Tuleta, which is looking at computer hacking and other alleged privacy breaches.
Some 61 journalists have been arrested since April 2011 as a result of police inquiries stemming from the News of the World phone-hacking scandal.
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