Six Bulgarians, part of a spy ring known as the “Minions,” are facing prison sentences of up to 14 years in the United Kingdom for espionage activities conducted on behalf of Russia. The sentencing is set to take place on Monday, May 12, following four days of hearings at London’s Old Bailey.

Between 2020 and 2023, the group operated across multiple European countries, targeting journalists and a former Kazakh politician. Their operations included plans to kidnap and lure targets into traps, tracking them across the UK, Austria, Spain, Germany, and Montenegro. Dominic Murphy, head of the London police’s counterterrorism unit, described the group’s actions as “industrial-scale espionage for Russia.”

The group’s leader, Orlin Rusev, 47, along with his deputy, Bizer Dzhambazov, 43, and Ivan Stoyanov, 32, have all pleaded guilty to espionage charges. Prosecutor Alison Morgan detailed their roles, emphasizing that they were fully aware of their operations’ connection to Moscow. Three other members, Catherine Ivanova, 33, Vanya Gaberova, 30, and Tihomir Ivanchev, 39, were convicted in March after a three-month trial.

The six-member cell, which dubbed itself the “Minions” after the animated film characters who work for the villainous Gru, had ties to the GRU (the foreign military intelligence agency of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation), Russia’s military intelligence agency. According to British police, their espionage efforts were uncovered through over 100,000 messages found on Rusev’s Telegram account, which led to a property in Great Yarmouth packed with spy equipment, including hidden cameras, microphones, and disguises such as a stuffed toy and a soda bottle.

The group also received instructions from Jan Marsalek, a former chief operating officer at the payments company Wirecard, who fled to Russia in 2020 to escape fraud charges in Germany. Marsalek, acting as a contact for Russian intelligence services, tasked Rusev with finding resources to execute operations. Rusev claimed in his messages to Marsalek that he would “satisfy the Russians,” suggesting plans to kidnap individuals or collect information on figures of interest to Moscow.

Among the group’s targets was Christo Grozev, an investigative journalist from the Bellingcat investigative journalism group, known for exposing Russian involvement in the 2018 Novichok poisoning in Salisbury and the downing of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17. Another plot involved plans to spray a Kazakh embassy building with fake pig blood in 2022, aiming to intimidate its occupants.

The group also monitored a US military base in Stuttgart, Germany, where they believed Ukrainian soldiers were training to use the Patriot missile system. Additionally, they tracked British-based dissident journalist Roman Dobrokhotov and former Kazakh politician Bergei Ryskaliev, who had been granted refugee status in the UK.

UK Security Minister Dan Jarvis stated that the convictions should serve as a clear warning to those attempting to harm the country. Relations between the UK and Russia have remained tense since Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.