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The door on the fifth floor of a crumbling Soviet-era tower block was flung open by an enormous red-faced man in a tracksuit, eyes bulging, bellowing at the top of his lungs.
I turned to my Bulgarian colleague to ask him to translate – but he had already turned to dart back down the staircase.’He says go away! We need to go now!’
This was the family home of cage fighter turned Russian spy Ivan Stoyanov, in Orlandovtzi, northeast Sofia.
And the huge man roaring at us was his father, clearly in no mood to discuss his son’s career pivot from grappling in the ring to espionage on behalf of the Russian state.
It was June last year and I was trying to piece together the family backgrounds of six Bulgarians who have been convicted of spying for Russia.
Beautician Vanya Gaberova, 30, decorator Tihomir Ivanchev, 39, and lab technician Katrin Ivanova, 33, were have been found guilty by an Old Bailey jury.
Their handler, Orlin Roussev, 46, his lieutenant, Biser Dzhambazov, 43, and Stoyanov, 32, had already pleaded guilty to charges under the Official Secrets Act.
The group spent almost three years passing secrets to Russia, travelling across Europe to spy on enemies of the state, journalists and a US air base.
Pictured: The home flat of Ivan Stoyanov in Sofia, Bulgaria. The cage fighter was part of a spy ring passing information to the Kremlin
Ivan Stoyanov, 32, had already pleaded guilty to the charges under the Official Secrets Act
When the Mail visited Stoyanov’s flat (pictured), his father, was clearly in no mood to discuss his son’s career pivot from grappling in the ring to espionage on behalf of the Russian state
They plotted to snare targets in ‘honeytraps’ using the two women as bait, and discussed kidnapping and even murdering them with nerve agents or poison if they could not bring them back to Moscow alive.
Back in Sofia, and with the adrenaline still pumping following the hostile reception from Mr Stoyanov, it was time to visit the family of the ‘Queen of the Lashes – Vanya Gaberova.
The spies’ trial heard their handlers planned to deploy the beautician, who owned a salon in west London named ‘Pretty Woman,’ in a ‘honeytrap’ plot to snare journalist Christo Grozev as they tailed him across Montenegro, Valencia and Vienna.
Her home village of Dolno Osenovo, tucked in between the mountains of southwestern Bulgaria, seemed a world away from some of these more glamorous locations.
Just two miles outside the village, a café worker said he would not serve people from Dolno Osenovo because of the community’s Muslim heritage.
In the small village square, there were plenty of stray cats, dogs and mothers with young children – but very few men.
One woman told me this was because almost every man in the village was a construction worker abroad on a project.
The homes had been built into the hillside by the skilled villagers themselves, she added proudly.
Beautician Vanya Gaberova (pictured), decorator Tihomir Ivanchev, 39, and lab technician Katrin Ivanova, 33, have been found guilty of conspiring to spy for Russia
Pictured: The family home of Katrin Ivanova in Sofia, Bulgaria
Katrin Ivanova (pictured) was found guilty of being part of the network of spies who passed information onto the Russian state
Biser Dzhambazov had previously pleaded guilty to spying for the Kremlin, before Friday’s verdict was delivered
The agents all face lengthy jail terms when they are sentenced. Pictured: Gaberova
Decorator Tihomir Ivanchev, 39, (left) and Orlin Roussev, 46, (right) were both accused of being part of the ring. Roussev pled guilty at an earlier date
We passed two sleeping donkeys as we walked up the steep, winding and potholed road unsuitable for cars to the Gaberova family home – the furthest away from the remote village.
Gaberova’s aunt, Dimitrina Kamenova, said her niece went to live in London but kept her ‘village mindset’ and had never been interested in anything other than her looks and career in cosmetics.
‘She was always childish and naïve, and when I first heard about the spying accusations I thought she won’t have understood what she got herself into,’ Ms Kamenova said.
‘She cannot understand these things; her mind works very superficially. She is a childish, soft soul, very, very naïve.’
Next we visited the spa town of Banya, in Plovdiv, about 100 miles south of Sofia and home to Tihomir Ivanchev, 39, a former open water swimmer who was recruited into the spy ring by Gaberova, his ex-girlfriend.
It is June and almost 35C but the spa town, famous for its mineral springs, is almost deserted because tourism season is yet to start.
In a souvenir shop at the far end of town we find Tsvetana, Ivanchev’s mother, working behind a counter covered in key rings, beach balls, socks, batteries, lip balm, and cigarette lighters.
We spoke shortly after news had broken of another Anglo-Bulgarian scandal – the town of Sliven that had enriched itself thanks to a gang of Roma who plundered more than £50m from the British benefits system.
And Tsvetana was at pains to stress that her son was nothing like the five of his countrymen convicted of fraud.
Orlin Roussev, 46, boasted to his controller that he was becoming like the 007 character ‘Q’ as he prepared his spying ‘toys’ for kidnap and surveillance operations across Europe
Pictured: The family home of Biser Dzhambazov in Sofia, Bulgaria. He was part of a Russian spy ring
The jury was 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 ring operated out of a Norfolk guesthouse where boxes of spy equipment were stored
‘Tihomir was always very careful to stay the right side of the law. He made sure to pay his taxes and when he sent money home it was all done legitimately,’ she said.
Her son was a world class open water swimmer who competed around the globe, but a lack of funding and sponsorship deals meant he was forced to abandon his dreams.
The whole family was happy if he was second, third, whatever happened we were proud of him because he always competed, he always gave it his all and did us proud,’ Tsvetana said.
‘Some of these races, especially the river in Brazil, when you finish you have nothing left – no breath in your lungs, and your arm is completely sunburnt. His skin was burnt to pieces but my son was incredibly tough.
‘He loved the water, but to succeed in this world you need finances, sponsorship, and he was not from a wealthy family so this was difficult.’
As we speak friends of Tsvetana pop into the shop every few minutes to say hello and ask how she is. No one buys anything.
Ivanchev, who didn’t finish high school, worked briefly as a swimming instructor after leaving his racing career but wasn’t making enough money so moved to the UK and began working in a restaurant named Happy in Piccadilly Circus.
Eventually he began working as a painter and decorator, and took out a £25,000 loan to fund the opening of Gaberova’s salon, Pretty Woman, in Acton.
He was arrested in February 2024, a year after the other members, and his mother spoke with him while he was on remand.
‘I was so distressed when he was arrested. He told me to stop crying,’ she said.
Gaberova pictured with Biser Dzhambazov, 43, who had already plead guilty to the charges under the Official Secrets act
A photo of Vanya Gaberova in spy glasses that was shown to jury during the trial
‘He said ‘don’t worry mum, it will all be okay, it will be finished without too much trouble’.
‘There is no way my son was initiating spying activity, if he was involved it was because he trusted the wrong people. He was a pawn.’
Next we would try the home of the boss, Orlin Roussev, 46, a technical wizard who referred to himself as ‘Q Branch’ because of the vast array of gadgets at his Great Yarmouth guesthouse.
His registered address was a large apartment in Nadezhda, northwest Sofia, but the building’s manager insisted that though he had owned the property for years, Roussev had never been there.
‘I know every person in this block and nothing happens here without me knowing about it,’ he said.
‘If this person is a spy perhaps he is not even Bulgarian and bought this place to try to persuade people he was.’
Neighbours shook their heads when presented with a photo of the spy handler, but I did succeed in getting one of his former business partners on the phone. It was a short conversation.
A screengrab from the social media network Telegram of Biser Dzhambazov, wearing what appears to be loo roll on his head, while on a video call with Vanya Gaberova
According to his LinkedIn profile, Roussev worked in the telecoms sector and owned a company involved in signals intelligence.
‘He stole money from me that was loaned to him and never given back,’ his former partner said.
‘It is ancient history now but we were business partners and our relationship did not end well.
‘I don’t know for sure if he ever lived in Sofia but I do know that he and his company are on the official list of big tax debtors in the Bulgarian tax office.’
Biser Dzhambazov’s mother, Maria, did not answer the doorbell to her home on the ninth floor of a tower block in Mladost, southeast Sofia.
Dzhambazov had acted as Roussev’s lieutenant and had been caught in a love triangle with Gaberova and his long term partner Katrin Ivanova, 33.
Police who raided Gaberova’s home found the pair of them naked in bed.
Neighbours said the elderly Maria, who had worked in the Bulgarian rail service, was distraught when she heard her son had been arrested in the UK.
‘He would visit her every year with Katrin but he never stayed in the family home,’ one said.’
‘He seemed to have enough money to stay somewhere nicer.’
The spies now face lengthy prison sentences when they are sentenced at the Old Bailey.
Who are the Bulgarians convicted of spying for Russia?
The spy handler, Jan Marsalek, 44
A fugitive businessman hiding out in Moscow, Jan Marsalek directed operations via 80,000 Telegram messages he exchanged with Orlin Roussev.
One of Interpol’s most wanted men, the 44-year-old former executive at German tech firm Wirecard has been on the run since the company collapsed in 2020 amid an alleged £1.6bn fraud.
The grandson of a Soviet spy, Marsalek is thought to have first been brought into Russian intelligence by former GRU officer Stanislav Petlinsky after the pair met on a yacht at his girlfriend’s birthday party in Nice, France, in 2014.
He is understood to have received instructions directly from Russian intelligence at the heart of the Kremlin.
Fugitive businessman Jan Marsalek (pictured in his passport photo) was the financer of the operations
‘Q Branch’, Orlin Roussev, 46
Orlin Roussev, 46, ran operations from a guesthouse in Great Yarmouth bought for £220,000 in 2021.
He referred to himself as ‘Q Branch’ because of his skills building spy gadgets, and thousands of pieces of sophisticated equipment, as well as forged identity documents, were found at his home.
Among them were homemade devices including a camera hidden in a rock, a Coca-Cola bottle containing another concealed camera and a £120,000 IMSI grabber which can intercept mobile phone information.
Roussev received orders directly from Marsalek along with hundreds of thousands of pounds to finance operations.
He had a telecommunications background and moved to Britain in 2009.
Orlin Roussev, 46, (pictured) ran operations from a guesthouse in Great Yarmouth bought for £220,000 in 2021
The adulterous middle-manager, Biser Dzhambazov, 43
Biser Dzhambazov was in charge of recruiting and directing the spies on the ground, receiving orders directly from Roussev.
The 43-year-old moved to the UK with his long-term girlfriend Katrin Ivanova, 33, but began an affair with Vanya Gaberova after recruiting her to the spy ring in 2021.
To explain his long absences to his mistress, he told her he had cancer and sent her photos of himself with ‘bandages’ made of toilet paper wrapped round his head.
When police carried out a series of raids to round up the spies in February 2023 they found Dzhambazov and Gaberova naked in bed together.
Bulgarian national Dzhambazov, 43, (pictured) previously admitted to spying in the UK on behalf of Russia
Scorned girlfriend / chief minion, Ivanova, 33
Katrin Ivanova was Dzhambazov’s long-term partner, having first started dating in Bulgaria when she was 17 and he was 27.
She was referred to by Roussev and Marsalek as ‘chief minion’ and one half of the ‘brunette twins’ with Gaberova.
Ivanova stalked journalist Christo Grozev and Russian dissident Roman Dobrokhotov on international flights, covertly filming them after the spies successfully accessed booking systems to place her near the targets.
She learned of Dzhambazov’s affair with Gaberova from a police statement after she was arrested.
Katrin Ivanova was Dzhambazov’s long-term partner, having first started dating in Bulgaria when she was 17 and he was 27
The Muscle, Ivan Stoyanov, 33
Ivan Stoyanov is a mixed martial arts fanatic from Greenford, west London, nicknamed ‘The Rock.
He met Dzhambazov and Ivanova through working at the same laboratory.
The ‘muscle’ of the operation, Roussev described Stoyanov, who grew up in a tower block in Bulgaria’s capital, as someone who ‘completed the police academy in Sofia and is former European MMA [mixed martial arts] champion.’
A video of Stoyanov’s bruising 2015 heavyweight knockout victory over a fighter named Josh Roosevelt Jones remains on YouTube.
Ivan Stoyanov (pictured) was a mixed martial arts fanatic from Greenford, west London, nicknamed ‘The Rock
Queen of the Lashes, Vanya Gaberova, 30
Vanya Gaberova ran a beauty parlour in Acton, west London, opened through a loan taken out by ex-boyfriend Tihomir Ivanchev.
The multi-award winning beautician, known as ‘Queen of the Lashes,’ was brought into the spy ring after meeting Dzhambazov at a Bulgarian polling station in London in 2021.
She recruited Ivanchev before leaving him to have an illicit affair with Dzhambazov.
Described as a ‘true sexy bitch’ by her spy bosses, Gaberova was intended to carry out ‘honeytrap’ plots and was ordered to send a Facebook request to journalist Christo Grozev before attempting to seduce him.
Vanya Gaberova (pictured in her custody photo) ran a beauty parlour in Acton, west London, opened through a loan taken out by ex-boyfriend Tihomir Ivanchev
The swimmer, Tihomir Ivanchev, 39
Recruited into the ring by his then-girlfriend Vanya Gaberova, Tihomir Ivanchev had been a promising open water swimmer in his native Bulgaria before abandoning the sport and moving to London in 2012.
A painter and decorator who worked seven days a week, Ivanchev said he was told the foreign spying trips would be ‘more like paid holidays,’ and went to visit the zoo in Vienna when he was tasked with following journalist Christo Grozev.
Ivanchev was the last to be arrested and was very cooperative with police. His barrister told his trial that during questioning he ‘sung like Justin Bieber, like a canary.’
Tihomir Ivanchev (pictured) was the last to be arrested and was very cooperative with police
