Six members of a Russian spy ring run from a guesthouse in Great Yarmouth have been jailed for running espionage operations across Europe.
The six Bulgarian spies conducted surveillance for Russia “on an industrial scale”, targeting journalists, dissidents and Ukrainian troops in London, Austria, Spain, Germany and Montenegro.
Ringleader Orlin Roussev, 47, who led the spy ring, was sentenced to 10 years and eight months.
Roussev admitted his role along with his second-in-command, Biser Dzhambazov, 44, who was jailed for 10 years and two months and Ivan Stoyanov, 33, who was handed five years and three weeks in prison.
Female “honeytrap” agents Katrin Ivanova, 33, and Vanya Gaberova, 30, and competitive swimmer Tihomir Ivanov Ivanchev, 39, were found guilty at the Old Bailey in March of activities which police have said put lives and national security at risk.
Ivanova was jailed for nine years and eight months.
Gaberova, of Euston, north London, was jailed for six years, eight months and three weeks, having found spying for Russia to be “exciting and glamorous”, the judge said.
Her ex-boyfriend Ivanchev, of Acton, west London, was sentenced to eight years in prison.
It is believed to be one of the “largest and most complex” enemy operations to be uncovered on UK soil.
The network engaged in a series of surveillance and intelligence operations over three years in which spies were referred to as Minions – characters from animated film Despicable Me.
Ivanova, a laboratory receptionist from Harrow, north London, and Gaberova, a beautician from Acton, west London, were in a love triangle with the operations chief of the spy ring.
Pretended to have cancer
Dzhambazov, a delivery driver who ran the ground operations of the spy ring, was pretending to have cancer to cover up his affair with Gaberova.
The group also included Dzhambazov’s best friend Stoyanov, from Greenford, northwest London – a former cage fighter known as “The Rock” who had represented Bulgaria at judo and sambo.
At the centre of the operation was Roussev, 46, who worked for a technology company at the London Stock Exchange before setting himself up as a freelance spy for hire.
Roussev had lived near Tower Bridge in central London before moving to Great Yarmouth, where his partner bought the 33-room Haydee Guesthouse. It was there that he stashed his huge collection of spy equipment, much of which he had adapted himself.
£173,000 paid to spies
Roussev is believed to have received “substantially more” than the £173,000 he paid to other members of the spy ring but he was paid in cryptocurrencies and the money has not been traced.
Among the spyware found at the seaside hotel were audiovisual spy devices hidden inside a rock, men’s ties, a Coca-Cola bottle and a Minions cuddly toy.
Kit to make and test counterfeit identity documents was recovered from Roussev’s address, with a stash of fake passports also found at the one-bedroom flat in Harrow that Ivanova and Dzhambazov shared.
Honey traps, but ‘no James Bond activity’
Their actual activities ranged between the UK, Austria, Spain, Germany and Montenegro and included dropping 100 litres of pigs’ blood on the Kazakhstan embassy in London by drone, and kidnapping a man in the UK.
They were overheard discussing deploying “lashes queen” Gaberova as a honeytrap to snare a high-profile journalist.
After his arrest, Roussev initially denied spying for Russia, telling police: “No James Bond activity on my end, I guarantee you.”
At the televised sentencing, judge Mr Justice Hilliard praised police for their “extremely thorough and determined investigative work”.
The defendants were “motivated by money”, he said, and lived “very comfortably” on the substantial sums they were paid.
Commander Dominic Murphy, head of Scotland Yard’s Counter Terrorism Command, said the gang engaged in spying “on an industrial scale”.
He said they posed a “serious threat” to the UK and Europe and highlighted a “relatively new phenomenon whereby espionage is being ‘outsourced’ by certain states”.
Security minister Dan Jarvis said the “substantial” sentences they received “should send a clear warning to anyone seeking to threaten our security, harm the UK and compromise the safety of the public”.
Read more:
Who were targets of Russian spy ring?
Spy ring plotted to kidnap journalist
He called the case a “stark reminder” of the “increasingly complex” threat facing the country from “hostile states who wish to undermine us.
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“We will use the full range of tools and powers available to us to detect, disrupt and deter malicious acts from hostile states and protect the public.”
He thanked the Crown Prosecution Service for “disrupting this threat and bringing these individuals to justice”.
