Three Bulgarian nationals based in the United Kingdom have been convicted by a London jury of spying for Russia on what police said was “an industrial scale”.

The trio was accused of putting lives in danger as they followed orders on behalf of Russian intelligence to carry out surveillance across Europe on Kremlin opponents, including journalists, diplomats and Ukrainian troops.

A jury at London’s Old Bailey court on Friday found Bulgarian nationals Katrin Ivanova, 43, Vanya Gaberova, 30, and Tihomir Ivanchev, 39, guilty of spying for Russia on what police said was “an industrial scale.”

The trio engaged in a series of surveillance and intelligence operations over three years during which one of their ringleaders nicknamed them “the Minions”, a reference to the yellow sidekicks in movie, Despicable Me, who work for supervillain Gru.

The defendants – who worked for the Russian intelligence service GRU – face up to 14 years in prison when they are sentenced in May along with three other Bulgarian members of the same spy cell.

The trio’s leader, Orlin Roussev, 47, his deputy Biser Dzhambazov, 43, and co-conspirator Ivan Stoyanov had all pleaded guilty to spying for Russia shortly before the trial.

Roussev received more than 200,000 euros ($217,000) to fund the spying activities.

The mastermind of the operation was alleged Russian agent Jan Marsalek, 44, an Austrian businessman wanted by Interpol after the collapse of German payment processing firm Wirecard.

Marsalek, whose current whereabouts are unknown but is believed to be in Russia, acted as a go-between linking Russian intelligence and the spy ring, instructing them to carry out six serious operations in the UK, Austria, Spain, Germany and Montenegro until their arrest in 2023.

“This was spying on an almost industrial scale on behalf of Russia, the Russian state and Russian intelligence services,” said Commander Dominic Murphy, the head of London police’s Counter Terrorism Command.

‘Indiana Jones’ HQ

British prosecutors said Marsalek tasked the British-based Bulgarian team with spying on Ukrainian soldiers being trained at a US base in Germany, with a view to tracking their movements on the battlefield after Russia’s 2022 invasion.

Another operation involved spying on Christo Grozev, a journalist with investigative website Bellingcat, who led a report on the 2018 poisoning of Russian double agent Sergei Skripal in Salisbury, England, with a view to kidnapping or even killing him.

The group also targeted British-based Russian Roman Dobrokhotov, editor-in-chief of The Insider, Bergey Ryskaliyev, a former Kazakh politician granted asylum in the UK, and Russian dissident Kiril Kachur.

They discussed dropping fake pigs’ blood on the Kazakhstan Embassy in London by drone as part of a fake protest intended to win favour with Kazakh spies.

Police found a trove of what they called “really sophisticated” spyware in a raid on Roussev’s operations centre in a former guesthouse in the seaside town of Great Yarmouth, described in text messages as his “Indiana Jones garage”.

It included homemade audiovisual spy devices hidden inside everyday objects including a rock, men’s ties, a Coke bottle and a Minions cuddly toy.

“Really sophisticated devices – the sort of thing you would really expect to see in a spy novel – were found here, in Great Yarmouth and London,” said  Murphy.

Love triangle

Dzhambazov, who worked for a medical courier company but claimed to be an Interpol police officer, was in a relationship with two other defendants — his laboratory assistant partner Ivanova and beautician Gaberova.

Gaberova, in turn, had ditched painter-decorator Ivanchev for Dzhambazov, who took her to Michelin-starred restaurants and stayed with her in a five-star hotel.

When police moved in to arrest the suspects in February 2023, they found Dzhambazov in bed with Gaberova rather than at home with Ivanova.

Both women claimed during the trial that they had been deceived and manipulated by Dzhambazov.

Mr Justice Hilliard KC remanded the defendants into custody until sentencing between May 7 and May 12.

Source

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Al Jazeera and news agencies