A Bulgarian spy ring that passed secrets onto the Russian state ran their covert operation from a quaint-looking Norfolk hotel, it was revealed in court.
Shocking photos show rooms at the Haydee guesthouse in Great Yarmouth crammed full of surveillance equipment and spying ‘toys’.Â
Among the high-tech gadgets found was a £120,000 ‘IMSI’ grabber that could capture people’s mobile phone numbers and fake ID printers.Â
The base, which looks like a typical seaside hotel from the outside, was used by the group of six Bulgarian spies to pass on information to the Kremlin.
Beautician Vanya Gaberova, 30, decorator Tihomir Ivanchev, 39, and lab technician Katrin Ivanova, 33, were all found guilty of conspiring to spy for Russia at the Old Bailey following a three-month trial.
Their handler, Orlin Roussev, 46, his lieutenant, Biser Dzhambazov, 43, and Ivan Stoyanov, 32, had already pleaded guilty to the charges under the Official Secrets Act.
Roussev previously boasted about being like James Bond’s ‘Q’ due to the scale of surveillance equipment at the Haydee guesthouse.Â
An ‘Aladdin’s Cave’ of sophisticated technology including rocks containing hidden cameras, 11 drones, 221 mobile phones and 75 fake passports was found at the address.Â
The Haydee guesthouse, which looks like a typical seaside hotel from the outside, was used by the group of six Bulgarian spies to pass on information to the Kremlin
Orlin Roussev, 46, (pictured) boasted he was becoming like the 007 character ‘Q’ as he prepared his spying ‘toys’ for kidnap and surveillance operations across Europe
Picture shows the huge amounts of surveillance equipment that were found inside the Norfolk hotelÂ
At the trial, jurors were also shown a £120,000 ‘IMSI grabber’ – a black metal box, the size of a large shoe box, capable of capturing mobile phone numbers from a nearby area.
The Razor II was made by an unknown manufacturer and had been modified to include a battery that allowed it to be deployed anywhere and a wi-fi interface to allow remote communication.
A smaller £40,000 system, marked ‘Stealth’, a black box the size of a pencil case, was designed to be carried around and concealed beneath outer clothing.
The devices were described as ‘law enforcement grade’ and could be used to intercept or disrupt targeted mobile phone communications.
They could also identify an individual phone by their IMSI and IMEI numbers in conjunction with a direction finding unit called a Jugular 4 which cost £15,000.
The spies planned to use them outside a US military base in Stuttgart, Germany, to gather information from the phones of Ukrainian servicemen who were being trained to operate Patriot missile defence batteries.
The court also heard how Roussev had a number of wi-fi enabled audio and video transmitters and recorders.Â
Much of it was ‘wearable technology’ for recording video and audio such as wristwatches, pens, ties, sunglasses, a cigarette lighter, car key fob and jewellery.
Three of the 33 rooms in the Great Yarmouth guesthouse were crammed full of surveillance equipmentÂ
Pictured: A £120,000 ‘IMSI grabber’ – a black metal box, the size of a large shoe box, capable of capturing mobile phone numbers from a nearby area
Bulgarian Vanya Gaberova, 30, was found guilty of spying after a three-month trial at the Old Bailey
The guesthouse had 33 rooms and inside three of them was a ‘significant amount of IT and surveillance equipment’
Pictured: Fake press cards belonging to Gaberova and Ivanchev that were shown to the jury during the trial
The jewellery included pendant necklaces with hidden camera and microphone with SD card storage and earrings with audio recorders.
Some had SIM cards meaning they could communicate and stream directly to another member of the spy ring.
A large number of USB power banks with covert video cameras were also found.
Water bottles had mobile phone linked video surveillance capability and other ‘designer’ hydration vessels had devices hidden in the lid.
Police also found a listening device in a computer mouse, a camera in a smoke detector, and an audio and video recorder in a coat hook.
Radio frequency audio transmitting devices included one concealed in a pen, some of which had voice activation to save on battery life.
Computer network exploitation devices – with names such as pineapples, coconuts, turtles, bash bunnies, rubber duckies, packet squirrels, key crocks, plunder bugs and shark jacks – could be used to intercept digital communications data on unsecured wi-fi networks.
There was also a Pandora car key cloning device, a Russian-made car unlocking device and radio frequency identification cloning equipment, which would allow the spies to capture hotel or building access cards and to clone them.
Gaberova pictured with Biser Dzhambazov, 43, who had already pleaded guilty to the charges under the Official Secrets act
The agents used hi-tech equipment to try and track Ukrainian servicemen training at US airbase Patch Barracks in Stuttgart (Pictured: A minion camera seized by police)
This picture of Vanya Gaberova wearing spy glasses was shown to the jury at the Old Bailey
Fugitive businessman Jan Marsalek (pictured in his passport photo) was the financer of the operations
Decorator Tihomir Ivanchev, 39, (left) was accused of being part of the spy ring
Ivan Stoyanov, 32, had already pleaded guilty to the charges under the Official Secrets Act.
Earpieces allowed the spies to listen in to inductive hearing loops used in public spaces, such as conference rooms, and could also be used for the spies to communicate with each other.
There were numerous GPS tracking devices with magnets which showed scratches and markings to suggest they had been used in previous deployments.
More traditional surveillance equipment included night vision binoculars and monoculars and mobile radios as well as scanners that could be used to listen to mobile radios used by security guards.
Other technical surveillance counter measures included radio frequency scanners known as ‘bug detectors’ and a basic camera lens detector.
There were said to be an ‘extraordinary’ number of mobile phones both traditional and smart phones, including low-cost Chinese manufactured Cubot smart phones that allowed the user to illegally modify the phone’s IMEI number.
