This is the shocking moment a Russian spy was arrested after British police stormed a guesthouse in Great Yarmouth, as the agent made one last bluff telling cops they were at the wrong house.
Bodycam footage released today showed the moment Orlin Roussev, 46, from Bulgaria, was apprehended at his home on February 8, 2023.
Officers can be heard yelling as they enter his home, ordering anyone inside to ‘stay where you are’ as police carry out searches of other rooms.
The clip shows how one officer opened a door to a room filled with boxes, with Roussev shown on the far side.
While being held in place by a cop, Roussev is heard trying to throw police off.
‘I think it’s the wrong place’, he declares.
A separate video shows Roussev being led around the house, where police found IT equipment worth hundreds of thousands of pounds.
The footage comes after beautician Vanya Gaberova, 30, decorator Tihomir Ivanchev, 39, and lab technician Katrin Ivanova, 33, – all from Bulgaria – were found guilty today of conspiring to spy for Russia at the Old Bailey following a three-month trial.
Bodycam footage released today showed the moment Orlin Roussev, 46, from Bulgaria, was apprehended at his home on February 8, 2023
While being held in place by a cop, Roussev is heard trying to throw police off. ‘I think it’s the wrong place’, he declares
The footage comes after beautician Vanya Gaberova, 30, decorator Tihomir Ivanchev, 39, and lab technician Katrin Ivanova, 33, – all from Bulgaria – were found guilty today of conspiring to spy for Russia
Their handler, Roussev, his lieutenant, Biser Dzhambazov, 43, and Ivan Stoyanov, 32, had already pleaded guilty to the charges under the Official Secrets Act.
The agents all face lengthy jail terms when sentenced.
The spy ring received orders directly from Moscow and was run from the Great Yarmouth guesthouse stacked with sophisticated surveillance technology.
The agents passed secrets to Russia for almost three years, spying on a US airbase in Germany and tailing opponents of the state – some of whom they plotted to snare in ‘honeytrap plots,’ kidnap and even murder.
Their well-financed activities spanned London, Vienna, Valencia, Montenegro and Stuttgart, with the two women intended to be used in a series of ‘honeytrap’ plots, their Old Bailey trial heard.
At least £200,000 was sent by the group’s Moscow-based handler, fugitive businessman Jan Marsalek, to finance the operations, which were planned over 80,000 messages exchanged with Roussev over Telegram.
Roussev previously boasted about being like James Bond’s ‘Q’ due to the scale of surveillance equipment at the Haydee guesthouse.
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.
Their handler, Roussev (pictured) , his lieutenant, Biser Dzhambazov, 43, and Ivan Stoyanov, 32, had already pleaded guilty to the charges under the Official Secrets Act
The agents all face lengthy jail terms when sentenced
The spy ring received orders directly from Moscow and was run from the Great Yarmouth guesthouse
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 hotel
Three of the 33 rooms in the Great Yarmouth guesthouse were crammed full of surveillance equipment
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
Roussev referred to himself as ‘Q Branch’ after James Bond’s famous quartermaster, and built many of the devices himself – including a Coca-Cola bottle containing a hidden camera.
The two women in the group were referred to as the ‘brunette twins’ and were tasked with setting honeytraps for targets including journalist Christo Grozev, whose work uncovering the men behind the Salisbury nerve agent attack made him a target for the Kremlin.
The spymasters also plotted to kidnap Grozev and take him back to Russia, but this plan was not followed through.
The spies also targeted a UK-based Russian dissident who they discussed killing with a poison dart fired from a drone, a Kazakhstani former politician, and a Russian lawyer who they planned to bring to Moscow ‘dead or alive’ for a fee of £30,000.
The agents used hi-tech equipment to try and track Ukrainian servicemen training at US airbase Patch Barracks in Stuttgart, with the aim of determining where US Patriot missiles were being fired.
They agreed a £34,000-a-month budget for the operation, which was cut short when the spies were arrested in a series of dawn raids by the British police in February 2023.
Following the 2018 Salisbury poisoning attack, Britain expelled 23 Russian diplomats identified as undeclared intelligence officers, and 100 Russian diplomat visa applications have been denied on national security grounds in the years since.
Russian intelligence agencies have turned to other methods to carry out covert plots, often using expendable proxy groups handlers refer to as ‘misfits,’ the independent reviewer of terrorism legislation, Jonathan Hall KC, said.
Gaberova pictured with Biser Dzhambazov, 43, who had already pleaded guilty to the charges under the Official Secrets act
This picture of Vanya Gaberova wearing spy glasses was shown to the jury at the Old Bailey
Pictured: Fake press cards belonging to Gaberova and Ivanchev that were shown to the jury during the trial
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.
‘The use of criminal proxies is one of the most demanding matters in the state threat world,’ he told the Mail.
‘And the Orlin Roussev case shows us that [the Russian state] is using very sophisticated actors.
‘They certainly invested a lot in these people, given the sums we have heard about and the sophisticated nature of the equipment found at their homes.
‘This activity was taking place while Russia was at war on one front with Ukraine and clearly willing to open up aggressive espionage fronts inside the UK and our western allies.’
