Photos of scanners, listening devices, cameras and printers for fake IDs seized by police were shown to jurors at the Central Criminal Court of England and Wales (known as the Old Bailey), the "Telegraph" newspaper reported, quoted by BTA.
The alleged spy ring, led by alleged Kremlin agent Orlin Rusev, from his home in a converted hotel in the British seaside town of Great Yarmouth, had amassed more than 3,000 pieces of surveillance equipment worth hundreds of thousands of pounds to use for spy missions in the United Kingdom by the time police arrested them in February 2023, it was reported to the court.
Roussev, 46, and Biser Dzhambazov, 43, his deputy, have already pleaded guilty to conspiring to spy with a Russian agent using the alias Rupert Tich, who prosecutors say is Jan Marsalek, the fugitive boss of the bankrupt German electronic payments company "Wirecard".
Marsalek is wanted by Interpol in connection with an alleged fraud worth 1.6 billion. pounds from the company "Wirecard", which collapsed in 2020.
Katrin Ivanova, 33-year-old girlfriend of Dzhambazov, Vanya Gaberova, his 30-year-old mistress, and Tihomir Ivanchev, Gaberova's 39-year-old ex-boyfriend, deny any involvement in the plot and are facing trial at the Old Bailey.
Fake IDs, drones and a tracking device
The jury was shown several photographs taken by Metropolitan Police counter-terrorism officers at the office from where Rusev ran the spy operation.
Among the devices that were put before the jury for closer examination was one described in court as a phone tapping device, described as being similar to those used by law enforcement organs. The device, the size of a large shoebox, contained a software radio console.
Photographs taken by police show piles of equipment scattered around the room in the former hotel on "Princess Road" that Roussev used as his headquarters.
Also seized from the rooms rented by Roussev were printers and scanners that can produce false identity documents, a large number of mobile phones, drones and numerous false British, Slovenian, Bulgarian, Italian and Greek passports and identity cards, including a false Czech passport in the name of Jan Marsalek, the court heard.
The jury was also shown a mobile phone tracking device, also described as being used by law enforcement, which, according to the prosecution, can be used "to intercept and/or disrupt specifically targeted mobile phone operations ... and identify a person by their international mobile phone identity codes. subscriber (IMSI code) and its localization within a radius of five meters".
The "Heidi" guesthouse, from where Rusev led the spy operation - calling it "Indiana Jones' warehouse" in his messages - has been described by prosecutors as a "typical seaside hotel".
Russev planned to use the surveillance devices outside a US military base in Stuttgart, Germany, to collect information from the phones of Ukrainian servicemen who were training to operate Patriot missile defence batteries.
The information would have allowed him to track the servicemen to Ukraine and establish where the missiles were launched from, but the plan was foiled in February last year.
Secret cameras in a "Coca Cola" bottle
Similar surveillance equipment was also allegedly found at the home that Dzhambazov and Ivanova share in Harrow, north-west London, including GPS tracking devices and radio frequency jammers.
It is alleged that two fake rocks with hidden cameras, as well as a camera hidden in a watch, and others hidden in a car key and a cigarette lighter. One hidden camera is said to have been hidden in a children's toy "Minion".
Police also found a large number of mobile phones, as well as what the prosecution described as "a huge amount" of computer equipment.
Prosecutor Dan Pawson-Pounds told the jury: "A huge amount of surveillance equipment was found at the addresses that are part of this investigation.".
Counter-terrorism officers who searched the Harrow address also found a safe hidden in a wardrobe, which contained a pink box of fake identity documents and a "Samsung" mobile phone belonging to Ivanova.
It is alleged that a tracking device was found in the drawer of the nightstand next to Dzhambazov's bed, as well as a radio jammer. Elsewhere in the property, officers found a secret camera hidden in a "Coca Cola" bottle.
The process is ongoing, the "Telegraph" notes.