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A FROM Russia with lust spy ring who carried out espionage operations for Vladimir Putin’s regime while bedding each other are facing jail – and it’s a growing trend, says a counter-terror chief.
Two women, known as the “killer sexy brunettes,” were in a love triangle with a leading member of the cell of six Bulgarian spies living and working in the UK.
The group plotted honeypot stings and conducted spying missions on behalf of Russia across Europe from Britain for lavish sums of money.
The spy ring was run by former city tech worker Orlin Roussev, 46, and targeted Putin’s opponents as well as assisting the Russian war effort against Ukraine.
A treasure trove of spyware was uncovered in a raid on his operations centre in a former guesthouse in Great Yarmouth – described in messages as his “Indiana Jones garage”.
It comes as the head of Met counter terror Dominic Murphy vowed never to take his “eye off the ball” but said more complex cases such as this are brewing as Britain becomes a “more hostile environment” to operate in due to the work of teams like his.
He added: “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.”
Growing trend of Russian spying on British soil
A counter-terrorism chief has warned of the growing trend of Russia using criminal proxies to spy on British soil.
Commander Dominic Murphy, the head of the Metropolitan Police Counter Terrorism Command vowed never to take his “eye off the ball” as he hailed his team’s success.
He said: “This is one of the largest and most complex examples of a group working for a foreign state to conduct intelligence surveillance operations here in the UK so it is a very significant case and I am very proud of the investigation team and the success they have had.
“This investigation uncovered spying on behalf of the Russian state on an industrial case, in this case committed by a group of Bulgarians contracted by an individual to conduct that spying on behalf of Russia.
“As the UK becomes a more hostile environment as a result of our work we will see them increasingly use proxies to conduct their activities.”
The ring was smashed in raids on properties in London and ringleader Orlin Roussev’s address in Great Yarmouth in February 2023, where police uncovered a treasure trove of hi-tech spyware.
On the challenges faced by enemy states operating on UK soil, he said: “Within counter-terrorism policing we are seeing more than 20% of our demand now coming from threat posed from foreign states to our national security so this is an ever growing challenge for us.
“We are committed to working closely with intelligence agencies in this country and our international partners to disrupt activity by foreign states.
“We have been working hard to make the UK a hostile working operating environment for these countries and this is an example of that because this group were contracted to operate on behalf of Russian intelligence services because this is a hostile environment for them to operate in directly here.
“So some positives but we will never take our eye off the ball working with our partners to keep the UK safe.”
Glamorous lab assistant Katrin Ivanova, 33, and beautician Vanya Gaberova, 30, were today convicted at the Old Bailey of espionage offences under the Official Secrets Act.
Gaberova’s painter and decorator ex-boyfriend Tihomir Ivanchev, 39, of Enfield, North London, was also convicted of spying charges.
The group engaged in a series of surveillance and intelligence operations over three years in which they were referred to as Despicable Me’s yellow sidekicks the Minions.
Gaberova was having an affair with Bizer Dzhambazov, 43, who ran the ground operations of the spy ring and in a relationship with Ivanova in Harrow, North West London.
Dzhambazov secretly moved mistress Gaberova into a flat near his work as a delivery driver at a blood testing laboratory in Euston.
At one point he pretended to Ivanova that he had a brain tumour in order to explain his absences while romping with beautician Gaberova.
He even appeared on a video call with Ivanova wearing a bandage -claiming he had just had an operation – with Gaberova clearly visible in the picture.
When cops arrested Dzhambazov, they found him naked in bed with Gaberova at her flat.
Dzhambazov pleaded guilty to spying before the trial began along with Roussev, who ran the spy network from the 33-room Haydee Guesthouse, close to the seafront at Great Yarmouth, Norfolk.
Cops found a “treasure trove” of spying equipment at the boarding house in a room he called his ‘Indiana Jones cave.’
A sixth member of the spy ring, mixed martial arts fighter Ivan ‘The Rock’ Stoyanov ,33, of Greenford, West London, also admitted spying.
It can now be revealed how the operation was controlled from Moscow by a fugitive Austrian businessman, Jan Marsalek, on behalf of Russia’s GRU military intelligence and the FSB state security service.
Marsalek, 43, was the former chief operating officer of a finance and tech company called Wirecard which collapsed in 2020 amid allegations of a £1.6bn fraud.
He lived in a Munich mansion but fled to Moscow after German authorities issued a warrant for his arrest.
The Bulgarian spies all had EU settled status enabling them to travel freely across Europe from the UK.
They were recruited by Roussev and paid handsomely for their clandestine work for Russia which jurors heard had put “many lives at risk.”
The network operated between August 2020 and February 2023 at locations including London, Valencia, Vienna, Montenegro and Stuttgart.
They also conducted surveillance on a US base in Germany where they believed Ukrainian soldiers were being trained to operate Patriot missile air defences.
‘Chief Minion’ Ivanova took videos of the military facility’s entrances, exits and security measures – though claimed she had only gone there for a “romantic holiday” with partner Dzhambazov.
The spy network also helped supply Russia with drones, laptops and military equipment in order to help Putin’s gangster state evade sanctions.
And they mounted surveillance operations on dissidents and individual enemies of Russia, with the help of a corrupt employee at the Swissport baggage handling company tracking flights of targets.
Among their targets was journalist Christo Grozev, who revealed the identities of the GRU agents who poisoned MI6 double agent Sergei Skripal and daughter Yulia with Novichok in Salisbury in March 2018.
The journalist was followed by Dzhambazov and “Brunette Twins” Ivanova and Gaberova to Austria, Bulgaria and then Spain, where he was attending a ‘Journalists Against Russian Aggression’ conference.
Gaberova got into a cab behind Mr Grozev’s at Valencia Airport and told the driver: “Follow that taxi.”
The spies planned to set up the married journalist in a honeypot trap with Gaberova, who befriended him on Facebook.
They also plotted to make a porn film starring Gaberova for Mr Grozev to view online.
Network boss Roussev told his controller Marsalek: “We can definitely record something for Pornhub too, that girl is real hot. She’s a swinger too.”
He added: “Vanya is very, very assertive and strongly independent …true sexy b***h.”
Dzhambazov also flew to Montenegro with his mistress to spy on Kirill Kachur, a Moscow official wanted by Russia for embezzlement.
In messages, controller Marsalek said he wanted Mr Kachur to be kidnapped and brought back to Moscow and did not mind if he “died by accident” on the journey.
Another target was journalist Roman Dobrokhto, co-founder of Russian magazine ‘The Insider.’
Roussev and Marsalek discussed spraying him with ricin to “burn him alive.”
Marsalek paid cryptocurrency to Roussev who forwarded £173,000 in Euros to Dzhambazov, who in turn passed on £36,700 to partner Ivanova and £24,000 to his mistress Gaberova.
Lowly ‘Minons’ Ivanchev and Stoyanov received £13,500 and £9,750 respectively.
Metropolitan Police head of counter-terrorism Commander Dominic Murphy said after the case : “This was spying on an almost industrial scale on behalf of the Russian intelligence services.
“Lots of their activity goes to the very heart of the freedoms and national security that we need to try and protect here in the UK.”
He added that the early stages of the investigation “almost felt like you were reading something that you expect to read in a spy novel.”
Ivanova was also convicted of possessing nine false identity documents.
The six spies will all be sentenced at a later date.
