A rundown former guesthouse on the east coast of England provided the perfect cover for the headquarters of a sophisticated Russian proxy spy ring.
When counter-terrorism police in balaclavas burst into the 33-room property in Great Yarmouth they uncovered an “Indiana Jones” treasure trove of spy toys.
Overwhelmed by force and backed into a corner, spymaster Orlin Roussev gave the impression of being scared and startled when officers swarmed into the property.
The 47-year-old initially claimed they had got the “wrong place” but, on being told they had a search warrant, quickly relented, saying: “Er, yeah, sure.”
Moving from room to room, police uncovered a pile of mobile phones, which Roussev claimed he had bought on eBay to repair.
Amid the cluttered hoarders’ paradise was an impressive collection of spyware, including fake passports, and audiovisual surveillance devices disguised as everyday items.
Counter-terrorism commander Dominic Murphy said some of the items were “things you definitely read about in spy novels – like a hidden rock spy”.
Roussev had made many of them himself, putting spy cameras and bugs in men’s ties, a Coke bottle and even the buttonhole flower on a Minion soft toy.
Mr Murphy said it took more than a week to search the property and nearly 2,000 exhibits were seized.
There were 495 sim cards, 33 audio recording devices, 55 visual recording devices, 11 drones, 16 radios, an IMSI (international mobile subscriber identity) grabber, which records data from mobile phones, wifi eavesdropping devices and jammers, and 65 fake identity documents in 55 names.
Mr Murphy said: “Just that scale in any investigation, that’s significant.”
He said officers involved in the operation had covered their faces to preserve their anonymity, adding: “Never has this been more the case than in cases like these when we are going up against Russia and China, going up against advanced adversaries.”
With just 72 hours to hold the suspects before charge or release, Mr Murphy said the team had to act very quickly.
The presence of fake identity documents at Roussev’s address and the home of his second-in-command, Biser Dzhambazov, gave police what they needed to bring initial charges, providing more time to work through the mass of digital evidence.
Mr Murphy said: “In this case we had to move very quickly. The amount of digital evidence was not going to allow that to happen.
“As a result of the identity documents we were able to charge early on and ensure those individuals were on remand and we had the capacity to look at the devices in time.
“We knew as a result of their activity they posed a risk to others, a physical risk and reputational risk as well as to national security.
“The priority for us was to stop their activity in their tracks while we gathered as much information as possible.”
More than 100,000 messages with the plotters on Roussev’s phone proved key in uncovering the wider spy activities.
Mr Murphy said: “Through that painstaking work we established there were six core plots. They were pieced together from fragments of conversation in which they referred to themselves as Minions.
“Everything coming out of the messages was so significant. It is really a treasure trove of information. I would describe them as conducting a sophisticated intelligence and surveillance operation.”
He added: “We found a lot of videos and pictures, surveillance videos, surveillance reports providing direct evidence of what they were doing. We found information relating to flight manifests and hotel records.”
Faced with the overwhelming evidence against them, Roussev and Dzhambazov, 43, from Harrow, north-west London, had little option other than to plead guilty to plotting to spy for Russia and possession of false identity documents.
They will be sentenced at the Old Bailey in May alongside four more members of the spy ring.
