A U.K. court Monday handed down jail terms of up to 10 years to six Bulgarians convicted for belonging to a Russian espionage cell described as like something from a “spy novel.”
Fake passports, hidden cameras, a spy love triangle and secret online chats about potential abductions and “honeytraps” were uncovered by investigators.
Orlin Roussev, 47, headed the operation from a run-down former guesthouse in the eastern English seaside resort of Great Yarmouth where police found a “treasure trove” of spy paraphernalia.
Sentencing the group at London’s Old Bailey criminal court, judge Nicholas Hilliard said the potential risks of spying on the U.K. and the individuals targeted would have been clear.
The cell’s operations are believed to be among the “largest and most complex” enemy operations ever uncovered on British soil.
Judge Hilliard said the defendants were “motivated by money,” with substantial sums of up to 1 million euros ($1.1 million) discussed, the BBC reported.
The judge added that the sums of money paid to the spies demonstrated the value of their covert activities to Russia.
The spies operated across borders in the U.K., Austria, Spain, Germany and Montenegro, the court heard.
Hundreds of spy gadgets were recovered from Roussev’s property including ones hidden inside a rock, men’s ties, a Coke bottle and even a Minions toy.
Police unraveled six operations dating back three years to August 2020 from a vast cache of Telegram messages on Roussev’s phone.
In the chat Roussev, nicknamed “Jackie Chan,” referred to his spies as Minions — characters from the animated film “Despicable Me” — while his second in command Biser Dzhambazov, 44, went by “Mad Max.”
In one sinister message about a potential abduction, ringleader Roussev responded: “If you are serious about it, I have the resources to kidnap, drug him and lock him up in a secure cave.”
Like a “spy novel”
Dominic Murphy, head of Counter Terrorism Command at London’s Metropolitan Police, described the cell as an “extremely sophisticated intelligence gathering operation.”
The network’s activities had been a “real threat” to both targeted individuals and national security with tactics like something from a “spy novel,” he said ahead of the sentencing hearing.
The cell was directed by alleged Russian agent Jan Marsalek, an Austrian businessman wanted by Interpol after the collapse of German payment processing firm Wirecard.
Marsalek acted as a go-between for Russian intelligence and Roussev.
Roussev, Dzhambazov and Ivan Stoyanov, 33, pleaded guilty to spying. They were sentenced to 10 years and eight months, 10 years and two months, and five years, respectively.
The other three, former competitive open water swimmer Tihomir Ivanchev, 39, laboratory assistant Katrin Ivanova, 33, and beauty salon business owner Vanya Gaberova, 30, were found guilty of espionage after a trial in March.
They were sentenced to eight years, nine years and eight months, and six years and eight months, respectively.
Gaberova’s defense lawyer Anthony Metzer said Gaberova was “controlled, coerced into this conspiracy by Mr. Dzhambazov,” who was her lover and also involved with Ivanova, the BBC reported. The court was told she had been diagnosed with depression, panic disorder, claustrophobia and anxiety.
The network engaged in a series of surveillance and intelligence operations targeting people and places of interest to the Russian state.
They discussed using Gaberova as a “honeytrap” to snare a high-profile journalist and dropping pigs blood on the Kazakhstan embassy in London by drone.
Another plot aimed to sweep up the mobile phone data of Ukrainian soldiers thought to be trained at a U.S. airbase in Germany.
When police raided the cell members’ homes in February 2023, they found Dzhambazov, who was in a long-term relationship with Ivanova, naked in bed with his lover Gaberova.
Giving evidence, Gaberova claimed she had been deceived by Dzhambazov who she thought was an Interpol officer with brain cancer.
Bellingcat investigative journalist Christo Grozev was among those targeted by the network after he exposed Russian links to the Novichok nerve agent attacks in the English city of Salisbury in 2018 and the downing of a Malaysia Airlines plane in July 2014.
Discovering the Bulgarian spooks had followed his and his family’s movements and spied on their communications over a prolonged period had been “terrifying, disorientating and deeply destabilizing,” he said in an impact statement.
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