Five people in Britain are suspected of spying for Russia and will be charged.
Bulgarian nationals Orlin Rusev, Bizer Zambazov, Katrin Ivanova, Ivan Stoyanov and Vanya Gaberova will appear at Westminster Magistrates' Court next week, reports with the BBC.
According to the same information, the group was accused of organizing a surveillance operation in Montenegro, which included making fake identification cards for journalists, including one with a picture of Ivanova.
They are accused of conspiring to gather information between August 2020 and February 2023 that could be useful to the enemy.
The defendants allegedly worked in an operational espionage cell for the Russian security services, which included tracking and monitoring targets.
They are accused of taking part in active operations in Britain and Europe, gathering and passing information to the Russian state.
Rusev, 45, allegedly ran operations from Britain and was the liaison to those receiving the information.
Police officers who searched the apartments in London and Norfolk, where the three defendants were - Rusev, Zambazov (41) and Ivanova (31) - found fake passports and official identification documents for Britain, Bulgaria, France, Italy, Spain, Croatia, Slovenia, Greece and the Czech Republic, reports N1.
Some of the documents contain photos of Rusev and Zambazov. Allegedly, Rusev made the forgery himself.
Rusev, Dzhambazov and Ivanova lived for years in Britain, working various jobs and living in a series of flats in the suburbs.
Rusev has a history of dealings in Russia. He moved to Britain in 2009 and spent three years doing technical work in financial services.
On his Linkedin profile, it is written that he later became the owner of a company that also dealt with intelligence signals, which includes the interception of communications or intelligence work, that is, the collection of intelligence data based on the interception of communications and electronic signals.
It is said that Rusev, whose last address was a guest house on the sea in Great Yarmouth, was also at one time an adviser to the Bulgarian Ministry of Energy.
In Haro, former neighbors described Dzambazov and Ivanova as a couple.
Dzambazov was described as a hospital driver, and Ivanova presented herself on Linkedin as a laboratory assistant for private healthcare.
The couple, who moved to Britain ten years ago, ran an organization that provided services to Bulgarians, including bringing them closer to "the culture and norms of British society."
According to Bulgarian government documents available online, they also worked for election commissions in London that organized voting in Bulgarian elections for Bulgarians living abroad.
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