Three British-based Bulgarians have been convicted by a London ju-san for spying on Russia for saying that police were “industrial scale.”
The trio were accused of risking their lives for following orders on behalf of the Russian Intelligence News to carry out surveillance across Europe with Kremlin opposition, including journalists, diplomats and Ukrainian troops.
During a ju apprentice at the old Bailey Court in London on Friday, Bulgarian nationals Katrin Ivanova (43), Vanya Gabellova (30), and 39-year-old Tikhomir Ivanchev were charged with spying for Russia after police said they were “industrial scale.”
The trio worked on a series of surveillance and intelligence news activities over three years, during which one of their masterminds was nicknamed “The Minions.”
The defendant, who worked for the Russian intelligence agency GRU, faces up to 14 years in prison when he was sentenced in May along with three other Bulgarian members of the same Spycel.
The trio’s leader, Aurin Rusev, 47, his deputy Buser Zhanbazov, 43, and his conspirator, Ivan Stoyanov, pleaded guilty to spying on Russia just before trial.
Roussev received more than 200,000 euros ($217,000) to fund the spying efforts.
The mastermind behind the operation was claimed Jan Marsalek, 44, a Russian agent who Interpol wanted, an Austrian businessman, after the collapse of German payment processing company Wirecard.
Marsalek, whose current location is unknown but is believed to be in Russia, served as a middle ground linking the Russian intelligence news and Spyring, directing six serious operations to be carried out in the UK, Austria, Spain, Germany and Montenegro until his arrest in 2023.
“This was spying on a nearly industrial scale on behalf of Russia, the Russian state and the Russian intelligence agency,” said Commander Dominique Murphy, head of the London Police Department’s counterterrorism command.
“Indiana Jones” HQ
British prosecutors said Marsalek was tasked with spying on training Ukrainian soldiers at US bases in Germany, with the aim of tracking the UK-based Bulgarian team’s movements on the battlefield after Russia’s 2022 invasion.
Another operation included spying on Christo Grozev, a journalist for the investigation website Bellingcat. He led a report on 2018 addiction by Russian double agent Sergei Skripal in Salisbury, England.
The group also granted exile in the UK and targeted Russian opposition Kiril Kakur, Russian opposition Roman Dubrokov, insider editor-in-chief Baazy Riskariev and former Kazakh politician Bergay Riskariev to grant exile in the UK.
They discussed dropping fake pig blood into the Kazakh embassy in London by drones as part of a fake protest aimed at gaining favor with Kazakh spies.
Police found a swarm of what was called “really refined” spyware in the assault on Rusev’s operations center in the former guesthouse in the seaside town of Great Yarmouth, which is described in text messages as his “Indiana Jones Garage.”
It included homemade audiovisual spy devices hidden within everyday objects, such as rocks, male ties, coke bottles, and cute washer toys.
“A truly sophisticated device – something you really expect from a spy novel – was here in Great Yarmouth and London,” Murphy said.
I love the Triangle
Dzhambazov, who worked for a medical courier but claimed to be an Interpol police officer, was associated with two defendants, his lab assistant partner Ivanova and a hairdresser Gaberova.
Gabellova abandoned the painter-decorated Ivanchev for dzhambazov, took him to a Michelin-starred restaurant, where he stayed in a five-star hotel.
When police moved to arrest the suspect in February 2023, they discovered dzhambazov in bed with Gabellova, not in their home with Ivanova.
Both women claimed during the trial that they had been deceived and manipulated by dzhambazov.
Judge Hilliard KC detained the defendant from May 7th to May 12th.
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