Three suspected spies for Russia have been arrested in Britain and charged in a major national security investigation, JEE News has revealed.
The defendants, all Bulgarian nationals, were detained in February and have been held since then.
They have been charged with possessing identification documents with “false intent”, and are accused of possessing them knowing they were forged.
He is accused of working for the Russian security services.
These documents include passports, identity cards and other documents from the UK, Bulgaria, France, Italy, Spain, Croatia, Slovenia, Greece and the Czech Republic.
The three were among five people arrested in February on suspicion of offenses under the Official Secrets Act.
He was detained by counter-terrorism detectives from the Metropolitan Police, which has national responsibility for espionage, and is due to answer police bail in September.
Three of them were later charged in February with an offense under the Identity Documents Act.
They are:
- Orlene Russo, 45, of Great Yarmouth, Norfolk
- Hero, 41-year-old Bazar Dzambazov from north-west London
- Katrin Ivanova, 31, of the same Hero address
He remains in custody and is due to appear at the Old Bailey at a later date.
All three have lived in the UK for years, working in a variety of jobs, and living in a series of suburban properties.
Mr. Russo has a history of business dealings in Russia.
He moved to the UK in 2009 and spent three years working in a technical role in financial services.
His online LinkedIn profile states that he later owned a business involved in signals intelligence, which involves intercepting communications or electronic signals.
Mr Rusov, whose latest address is a seaside guesthouse in Great Yarmouth, also says he once worked as an adviser to Bulgaria’s energy ministry.
In Hero, former neighbors described Mr. Dzambazov and Ms. Ivanova as a couple.
Mr. Zambazov is described as a driver for hospitals, and Ms. Ivanova describes herself on her online LinkedIn profile as a laboratory assistant for a private health business.
The couple, who moved to the UK almost a decade ago, ran a community organization providing services to Bulgarian people, including introducing them to “the culture and norms of British society”.
According to Bulgarian official documents online, he also worked for the Electoral Commission in London, which facilitates citizens living abroad to vote in Bulgarian elections.
Speaking to JEE News, neighbors of the two houses previously occupied by the couple said they had brought round pies and cakes as gifts.
At his recent Hero home, neighbors said detectives spent a lot of time searching for him, with a police presence seen for more than a week.
The three defendants are due to go on trial at London’s Old Bailey in January. They are yet to enter pleas to the charges.
Counter-terrorism police have spoken publicly about the increasing amount of time they spend on suspected state threats and espionage, particularly related to Russia.
Their concern follows infamous incidents in recent years involving Russian intelligence operations in the UK.
In 2018, Russian operatives attempted to kill former double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia in Salisbury, Wiltshire, using the deadly nerve agent Novichok. The pair, as well as responding detective Nick Bailey, were treated at the hospital and may have died.
Later that year, local woman Dawn Sturgis – unrelated to the Skripals – died after being exposed to the nerve agent, which had been left in a perfume bottle in Wiltshire.
In 2006, former Russian intelligence officer Alexander Litvinenko was poisoned in London by assassins working for the Russian state.
