By Ashley Young-
Five people suspected of spying for Russia have been arrested under the Official Secrets Act. Three of them also face other charges after being found with multiple passports from different countries.
The defendants, all Bulgarian nationals, were held in February and have been remanded in custody since.
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They are charged with possessing identity documents with “improper intention”, and are alleged to have had these knowing they were fake.
It is alleged they were working for the Russian security services.
The documents include passports, identity cards and other documents for the UK, Bulgaria, France, Italy, Spain, Croatia, Slovenia, Greece, and the Czech Republic.
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The trio were among five people arrested in February on suspicion of an offence under the Official Secrets Act.
They were held by counter-terrorism detectives from the Metropolitan Police, which has national policing responsibility for espionage, and are due to return in September to answer police bail.
Three of them were charged later in February with an offence under the Identity Documents Act.
The trio had 19 passports, driving licences, identity cards and residence permits from countries including the UK, France, Italy, Bulgaria, Spain, Greece, Croatia, the Czech Republic and Slovenia.
All three are believed to be Bulgarian, while Dzambazov and Ivanova are reportedly in a relationship, said Sky’s crime correspondent Martin Brunt.
Ivanova describes herself on LinkedIn as a laboratory assistant for a private health business.
A neighbour of the pair said they did not notice any suspicious behaviour and they were “very unobtrusive, you didn’t get to know them at all”.
“People have been coming and going in that place for several years now so we didn’t think anything of it,” they said.
Roussev is listed at Companies House as an officer for a company called MyTotal TV Ltd, along with two others. His LinkedIn says he used to be an adviser to the Bulgarian ministry of energy.
No information appears to be publicly available for Dzambazov.
The three of them have been remanded in custody and will appear at the Old Bailey on a date still to be agreed.
The 31-year-old man and 29-year-old woman arrested have been released on bail until September.
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