Bulgarians found guilty of spying for Russia in the UK

A sophisticated” UK-based spy ring that passed secrets to Russia for nearly three years has been found guilty of espionage, in one of the most complex investigations carried out by the Met Police.

- HOLLY EVANS

Bulgarian nationals Katrin Ivanova, 33, Vanya Gaberova, 30, and Tihomir Ivanov Ivanchev, 39, formed part of a group that carried out surveillance on Russian dissidents and put “many lives at risk”, with plans to even kidnap and kill certain targets.

They included a Bellingcat investigative journalist, a Kazakhstani former politician and a Russian lawyer, while the group also spied on a US army base in Germany where Ukrainian troops were said to be trained.

Upon their arrest, hundreds of spyware devices were discovered including hidden bugs and signal jammers, as well as 33 audio devices, 55 visual recording devices, 221 mobile phone phones, 495 sim cards, 11 drones, 75 passports and 91 bank cards in various names.

Two more defendants, Orlin Roussev and Biser Dzhambazov, who were the main operators of the ring, had pleaded guilty ahead of trial to espionage charges.

An Old Bailey trial heard that the group received hundreds of thousands of pounds which was channelled through their Russian spymaster “Rupert Ticz”, said to be Austrian national Jan Marsalek.

Over the course of three years, the spy ring plotted six spying operations which were “extremely risky” and included filming Gaberova and Dzhambazov their targets, orchestrating direct contact and using the female defendants as sexual bait to gather information.