'Minions' spy ring run from Great Yarmouth seaside guesthouse jailed
The Bulgarian ringleader of a UK-based spy network made up of his five 'Minions' has been jailed for more than 10 years.
Orlin Roussev, 47, ran a Russian spy ring from a former guesthouse in Great Yarmouth, Norfolk, alongside his five 'Minions' - the yellow sidekicks from the children's film Despicable Me whose name they used as an inside joke.
He received a sentence of 10 years and eight months at the Old Bailey on Monday.
Roussev, his second-in-command Biser Dzhambazov, 44, and 33-year-old Ivan Stoyanov had earlier admitted their roles, while Katrin Ivanova, 33, Vanya Gaberova, 30 and competitive swimmer Tihomir Ivanov Ivanchev, 39, were found guilty of spying on an "industrial scale" at the same court in March.
Dzhambazov was sentenced to 10 years and two months in prison while Ivanova received nine years and eight months.
They worked as spies for the Russian intelligence service, the GRU, in what is believed to be one of the "largest and most complex" enemy operations to be uncovered on UK soil - directed by alleged Russian agent Jan Marsalek, 44, an Austrian businessman wanted by Interpol for fraud.
Marsalek was a go-between for intelligence services in Russia and Roussev at the Great Yarmouth guesthouse - which he described as his "Indiana Jones garage" - with the network engaging in surveillance and intelligence operations over three years.
They discussed using beautician Gaberova as a honeytrap to snare a high-profile journalist, dropping 100 litres of pigs' blood on the Kazakhstan embassy in London by drone and kidnapping a man on UK soil.
Spyware recovered from the 33-bed coastal guesthouse included homemade audiovisual spy devices hidden inside a rock, men's ties, a Coke bottle and a Minions cuddly toy.
Second-in-command Dzhambazov was in a love triangle with two of the team - his partner Ivanova and "lashes queen" Gaberova.
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