More Russian spy cells are lurking in Britain, a counter-terror chief warned as six Bulgarians were convicted of spying for the Kremlin.
The spy ring received orders directly from Moscow and was run from a Great Yarmouth guesthouse stacked with sophisticated surveillance technology.
The agents passed secrets to Russia for almost three years, spying on a US airbase in Germany and tailing opponents of the state – some of whom they plotted to snare in ‘honeytrap plots,’ kidnap and even murder.
A fifth of British counter-terror policing is now devoted to battling a surge of state-backed threats, Scotland Yard commander Dominic Murphy said.
And this espionage cell lurking in suburbia was just one example of the Russian intelligence services using proxy agents for its ‘stream of covert activity and sabotage,’ he warned.
‘The reality is this won’t be the only activity Russia is conducting here in the UK and we have seen other disruptions here in recent months,’ Mr Murphy, head of counterterrorism command, added.
Beautician Vanya Gaberova, 30, decorator Tihomir Ivanchev, 39, and lab technician Katrin Ivanova, 33, have been found guilty of conspiring to spy for Russia after a three-month trial.
Their handler, Orlin Roussev, 46, his lieutenant, Biser Dzhambazov, 43, and Ivan Stoyanov, 32, had already pleaded guilty to the charges under the Official Secrets Act.
Beautician Vanya Gaberova (pictured), decorator Tihomir Ivanchev, 39, and lab technician Katrin Ivanova, 33, have been found guilty of conspiring to spy for Russia
Gaberova pictured with Biser Dzhambazov, 43, who had already plead guilty to the charges under the Official Secrets act
Katrin Ivanova (pictured) was found guilty of being part of the network of spies who passed information onto the Russian state
The agents all face lengthy jail terms when they are sentenced. Pictured: Gaberova’s custody photo
Decorator Tihomir Ivanchev, 39, (left) and Orlin Roussev, 46, (right) were both accused of being part of the ring. Roussev pled guilty at an earlier date
Biser Dzhambazov had previously pleaded guilty to spying for the Kremlin, before Friday’s verdict was delivered
Ivan Stoyanov, 32, pleaded guilty to the charges under the Official Secrets Act
The agents all face lengthy jail terms when they are sentenced.
Their well-financed activities spanned London, Vienna, Valencia, Montenegro and Stuttgart, with the two women intended to be used in a series of ‘honeytrap’ plots, their Old Bailey trial heard.
At least £200,000 was sent by the group’s Moscow-based handler, fugitive businessman Jan Marsalek, to finance the operations, which were planned over 80,000 messages exchanged with Roussev over Telegram.
And an ‘Aladdin’s Cave’ of sophisticated technology including rocks containing hidden cameras, a £120,000 device for intercepting mobile phone numbers, 11 drones, 221 mobile phones and 75 fake passports was found at Roussev’s guesthouse.
The Bulgarian referred to himself as ‘Q Branch’ after James Bond’s famous quartermaster, and built many of the devices himself – including a Coca-Cola bottle containing a hidden camera.
Commander Murphy said the investigation into the group was the largest he had seen in his two decades of counter-terrorism.
‘This was spying on an almost industrial scale on behalf of Russia,’ he added.
‘It felt like something you would expect to read in a spy novel. This is not something we see very often.’
Pictured: Fake press cards belonging to Gaberova and Ivanchev that were shown to the jury during the trial
Fugitive businessman Jan Marsalek (pictured in his passport photo) was the financer of the operations
A fake Belgian passport in the name of Alexandre Schmidt, with a photograph of Jan Marsalek
An Interpol red notice issued at the request of Germany in August 2020 for spy Jan Marsalek
A Slovenian ID card in the name of Marko Humar, with a photo of spy chief Orlin Roussev
Sophisticated technology including rocks containing hidden cameras and a £120,000 device for intercepting mobile phone numbers was found at an address in Great Yarmouth
Police also found 11 drones, 221 mobile phones and 75 fake passports at Roussev’s guesthouse
Bulgarian national Dzhambazov, 43, previously admitted to spying in the UK on behalf of Russia
Pictured: The Haydee Hotel guest house in Great Yarmouth, Norfolk, which was linked to the spy ring
A photo of a fake Dzhambazov press ID card shown to the jury during the trial
A surveillance image of Christo Grozev, whose work uncovering the men behind the Salisbury nerve agent attack made him a target for the Kremlin, and Roman Dobrokhotov
The agents used hi-tech equipment to try and track Ukrainian servicemen training at US airbase Patch Barracks in Stuttgart (Pictured: A minion camera seized by police)
The two women in the group were referred to as the ‘brunette twins’ and were tasked with setting honeytraps for targets including journalist Christo Grozev, whose work uncovering the men behind the Salisbury nerve agent attack made him a target for the Kremlin.
Gaberova was intended to seduce the journalist in a honeytrap plot and sent Grozev a Facebook message, which he accepted.
‘We can definitely record something for Pornhub too, that girl is real hot,’ Roussev wrote to Marsalek.
‘She’s a swinger too.’
The spymasters also plotted to kidnap Grozev and take him back to Russia, but this plan was not followed through.
The spies also targeted a UK-based Russian dissident who they discussed killing with a poison dart fired from a drone, a Kazakhstani former politician, and a Russian lawyer who they planned to bring to Moscow ‘dead or alive’ for a fee of £30,000.
The agents used hi-tech equipment to try and track Ukrainian servicemen training at US airbase Patch Barracks in Stuttgart, with the aim of determining where US Patriot missiles were being fired.
They agreed a £34,000-a-month budget for the operation, which was cut short when the spies were arrested in a series of dawn raids by the British police in February 2023.
A photo of Vanya Gaberova in spy glasses that was shown to jury during the trial
Bulgarian national Dzhambazov, 43, previously admitted to spying in the UK on behalf of Russia
Dzhambazov, seen dressed in military uniform, was one of six found guilty on Friday
Police officers found an array of fake military uniform at the home of Dzhambazov
Police camera footage shows Ivanchev being interviewed by police after his arrest
Police who smashed into his home found Dzhambazov naked in bed with Gaberova.
His long-term girlfriend, Ivanova, only learnt of their affair after she herself was arrested.
Following the 2018 Salisbury poisoning attack, Britain expelled 23 Russian diplomats identified as undeclared intelligence officers, and 100 Russian diplomat visa applications have been denied on national security grounds in the years since.
Russian intelligence agencies have turned to other methods to carry out covert plots, often using expendable proxy groups handlers refer to as ‘misfits,’ the independent reviewer of terrorism legislation, Jonathan Hall KC, said.
‘The use of criminal proxies is one of the most demanding matters in the state threat world,’ he told the Mail.
‘And the Orlin Roussev case shows us that [the Russian state] is using very sophisticated actors.
‘They certainly invested a lot in these people, given the sums we have heard about and the sophisticated nature of the equipment found at their homes.
‘This activity was taking place while Russia was at war on one front with Ukraine and clearly willing to open up aggressive espionage fronts inside the UK and our western allies.’
Mr Hall said that hostile states employing proxies to carry out nefarious plots in the West was on the rise, citing a stunt in which five coffins bearing the inscription ‘French soldiers of Ukraine’ were deposited near the Eiffel Tower last year.
A screengrab from the social media network Telegram of Biser Dzhambazov, wearing what appears to be loo roll on his head, while on a video call with Vanya Gaberova
Spies Katrin Ivanova (left) and Vanya Gaberova (right) are seen in an artist’s illustration during an earlier appearance at Westminster Magistrates court via videolink
Image shows a Coca Cola bottle that was seized as part of the investigation
A handout photo issued by Met Police of the Jewish Museum in Vienna, where the spy ring planned to post Nazi Ukrainian stickers
Screen grab taken from police body cam showing the arrest of spy chief Orlin Roussev in Great Yarmouth in 2023
Spy chief Roussev shown during the moment of his arrest at his Great Yarmouth home in 2023
At least £200,000 was sent by the group’s Moscow-based handler, fugitive businessman Jan Marsalek, to finance the operations, which were planned over 80,000 messages exchanged with Roussev (pictured during his arrest) over Telegram
A wider shot of the scene of Roussev’s arrest shows special equipment used for his activities
Mobile phones found by police inside a safe at a property occupied by Biser Dzhambazov and Katrin Ivanova in High Road, Harrow
Footage shows Tihomir Ivanov Ivanchev speaking to a police officer outside the home of his ex-girlfriend Vanya Gaberova the day after she was arrested
It is thought the culprits were also eastern Europeans coordinated by Russian intelligence.
Suspected Russian-led attacks on British soil include an arson attack on an east London industrial unit linked to Ukrainian businesses last March, carried out by British men Jake Reeves and Dylan Earl at the behest of Russia’s Wagner mercenary group.
Earl became the first person to be convicted under the new National Security Act, brought in last year to target those working secretly for hostile states within the UK.
‘Using proxies means they are expendable,’ Mr Hall explained.
‘If they are apprehended then they won’t know much about the wider system operating them so they are low risk.’
Mr Hall said that Britain had to work under the assumption that state-sponsored acts of sabotage and disruption would continue.
‘Spying is as old as the hills and there is no reason to think that the appetite is going to decrease,’ he said.
‘It is not limited to traditional spying, there is also information warfare designed to cause disruption, undermine systems and even influence voting.
‘One of the things the public doesn’t realise is that some of it will be very attention-grabbing, murder for hire for example, but quite a lot of this is actually very subtle and a long-term influence operation.
‘The harm is less immediately obvious and it is very hard to tell if there is a hidden hand at work.’
Who are the Bulgarians convicted of spying for Russia?
The spy handler, Jan Marsalek, 44
A fugitive businessman hiding out in Moscow, Jan Marsalek directed operations via 80,000 Telegram messages he exchanged with Orlin Roussev.
One of Interpol’s most wanted men, the 44-year-old former executive at German tech firm Wirecard has been on the run since the company collapsed in 2020 amid an alleged £1.6bn fraud.
The grandson of a Soviet spy, Marsalek is thought to have first been brought into Russian intelligence by former GRU officer Stanislav Petlinsky after the pair met on a yacht at his girlfriend’s birthday party in Nice, France, in 2014.
He is understood to have received instructions directly from Russian intelligence at the heart of the Kremlin.
Fugitive businessman Jan Marsalek (pictured in his passport photo) was the financer of the operations
‘Q Branch’, Orlin Roussev, 46
Orlin Roussev, 46, ran operations from a guesthouse in Great Yarmouth bought for £220,000 in 2021.
He referred to himself as ‘Q Branch’ because of his skills building spy gadgets, and thousands of pieces of sophisticated equipment, as well as forged identity documents, were found at his home.
Among them were homemade devices including a camera hidden in a rock, a Coca-Cola bottle containing another concealed camera and a £120,000 IMSI grabber which can intercept mobile phone information.
Roussev received orders directly from Marsalek along with hundreds of thousands of pounds to finance operations.
He had a telecommunications background and moved to Britain in 2009.
Orlin Roussev, 46, (pictured) ran operations from a guesthouse in Great Yarmouth bought for £220,000 in 2021
The adulterous middle-manager, Biser Dzhambazov, 43
Biser Dzhambazov was in charge of recruiting and directing the spies on the ground, receiving orders directly from Roussev.
The 43-year-old moved to the UK with his long-term girlfriend Katrin Ivanova, 33, but began an affair with Vanya Gaberova after recruiting her to the spy ring in 2021.
To explain his long absences to his mistress, he told her he had cancer and sent her photos of himself with ‘bandages’ made of toilet paper wrapped round his head.
When police carried out a series of raids to round up the spies in February 2023 they found Dzhambazov and Gaberova naked in bed together.
Bulgarian national Dzhambazov, 43, (pictured) previously admitted to spying in the UK on behalf of Russia
Scorned girlfriend / chief minion, Ivanova, 33
Katrin Ivanova was Dzhambazov’s long-term partner, having first started dating in Bulgaria when she was 17 and he was 27.
She was referred to by Roussev and Marsalek as ‘chief minion’ and one half of the ‘brunette twins’ with Gaberova.
Ivanova stalked journalist Christo Grozev and Russian dissident Roman Dobrokhotov on international flights, covertly filming them after the spies successfully accessed booking systems to place her near the targets.
She learned of Dzhambazov’s affair with Gaberova from a police statement after she was arrested.
Katrin Ivanova was Dzhambazov’s long-term partner, having first started dating in Bulgaria when she was 17 and he was 27
The Muscle, Ivan Stoyanov, 33
Ivan Stoyanov is a mixed martial arts fanatic from Greenford, west London, nicknamed ‘The Rock.
He met Dzhambazov and Ivanova through working at the same laboratory.
The ‘muscle’ of the operation, Roussev described Stoyanov, who grew up in a tower block in Bulgaria’s capital, as someone who ‘completed the police academy in Sofia and is former European MMA [mixed martial arts] champion.’
A video of Stoyanov’s bruising 2015 heavyweight knockout victory over a fighter named Josh Roosevelt Jones remains on YouTube.
Ivan Stoyanov (pictured) was a mixed martial arts fanatic from Greenford, west London, nicknamed ‘The Rock
Queen of the Lashes, Vanya Gaberova, 30
Vanya Gaberova ran a beauty parlour in Acton, west London, opened through a loan taken out by ex-boyfriend Tihomir Ivanchev.
The multi-award winning beautician, known as ‘Queen of the Lashes,’ was brought into the spy ring after meeting Dzhambazov at a Bulgarian polling station in London in 2021.
She recruited Ivanchev before leaving him to have an illicit affair with Dzhambazov.
Described as a ‘true sexy bitch’ by her spy bosses, Gaberova was intended to carry out ‘honeytrap’ plots and was ordered to send a Facebook request to journalist Christo Grozev before attempting to seduce him.
Vanya Gaberova (pictured in her custody photo) ran a beauty parlour in Acton, west London, opened through a loan taken out by ex-boyfriend Tihomir Ivanchev
The swimmer, Tihomir Ivanchev, 39
Recruited into the ring by his then-girlfriend Vanya Gaberova, Tihomir Ivanchev had been a promising open water swimmer in his native Bulgaria before abandoning the sport and moving to London in 2012.
A painter and decorator who worked seven days a week, Ivanchev said he was told the foreign spying trips would be ‘more like paid holidays,’ and went to visit the zoo in Vienna when he was tasked with following journalist Christo Grozev.
Ivanchev was the last to be arrested and was very cooperative with police. His barrister told his trial that during questioning he ‘sung like Justin Bieber, like a canary.’
Tihomir Ivanchev (pictured) was the last to be arrested and was very cooperative with police
