A team of Russian agents have been found guilty following the biggest spying investigation in Britain.
The spy ring, made up of Bulgarian nationals, plotted kidnaps, disinformation campaigns, surveillance against Ukrainian troops and secret weapon trades with China from their base in Great Yarmouth in the UK.
The group received orders from Moscow via Jan Marsalek, a fugitive tech boss and one of the most wanted men in Europe.
Katrin Ivanova, 33, Vanya Gaberova, 30, and Tihomir Ivanchev, 39, “minions” who ran surveillance operations on the ground, have been found guilty after a 12-week trial at the Old Bailey.
Orlin Roussev and Bizer Dzhambazov, 43, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to spy for Russia late last year, just as the trial against them was due to begin.
Commander Dominic Murphy, the head of the Metropolitan Police Counter Terrorism Command, said details of the case were like “something that you expect to read in a spy novel”.
“This is one of the largest spying investigations that I am aware of and have been involved in in 20 plus years in counter terrorism,” Mr Murphy said.
“This is spying on an almost industrial scale on behalf of Russia, the Russian state and Russia intelligence services. Lots of their activity goes to the heart of freedoms and national security we need to protect here in the UK.”
The Telegraph can now publish details of a year-long investigation into Marsalek’s extraordinary double life for the first time.
Who is Jan Marsalek?
Jan Marsalek fled to Russia in 2020
Jan Marsalek fled to Russia in 2020
The businessman was working for the Russian state and set up his spy ring whilst at the helm of Wirecard, the now-disgraced German payments processing company.
Despite multiple warnings to police and security services across Europe going back at least five years, he was able to flee to Russia when the company collapsed around him with a €1.9 billion (£1.6 billion) hole in its books.
While the criminal charges against his ring of Bulgarian spies date from two months after he arrived in Russia, police say that there was “clearly activity” before he fled.
Marsalek met Roussev, the spy ringleader, through a business associate in 2015. He even used Wirecard fund to pay the Bulgarian and his number two, Dzhambazov, tens of thousands of pounds.
There are “ongoing investigations” into Marsalek and his network of spies, not all of whom have been arrested, both in the UK and abroad, it was confirmed.
Ivanova, Dzhambazov’s long-term girlfriend, and Gaberova, his lover, both claimed that he had tricked them and they had no idea that they were acting for Russia.
Ivanchev, a former champion swimmer and Gaberova’s ex-boyfriend, said that he thought he was working for Interpol.
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2025/03/07/russian-agents-found-guilty-britains-spy-ring/