The British police announced on Tuesday that three Bulgarians, suspected of spying for Russia and in possession of false identity documents, had been charged. The trio, consisting of two men and a woman, were arrested in February and have been held in custody ever since.

The London Metropolitan Police confirmed that five people were arrested in February by officers under the Official Secrets Act. Three of them have since been charged with possession of false identification documents with improper intent.

According to a police report, the three were Orlin Dzambazov (45), Biser Dazambazov (42), and Katrin Inova (31).

The defendants appeared in London’s Old Bailey Court on July 15 and were remanded until a later date.

The defendants have not entered a plea and will be brought to trial at the Old Bailey, in January.

False identity documents include passports, identity cards, and other documents from the UK and Bulgaria. They also include documents from France, Italy, Spain, and Croatia.

Roussev Dzambazov and Ivanova have lived and worked in the UK for many years.

Mr. Roussev has a history of business dealings in Russia.

In 2009, he moved to the UK and worked for three years in a technical position in financial services.

According to his online LinkedIn profile, he owned a company that was involved in signals intelligence. This involves intercepting communications or electronic signals.

Mr. Roussev’s most recent address was a guesthouse on the seaside in Great Yarmouth. He also claims to have worked as a consultant for the Bulgarian Ministry of Energy.

Former neighbors in Harrow described Mr Dzhambazov, and Ms Ivanova together as a couple.

On his online LinkedIn profile, Mr. Dzhambazov describes himself as a hospital driver. Ms. Ivanova describes her role as a laboratory technician for a private healthcare business.

The two Bulgarians, who came to the UK about a decade before, ran a local community organization that provided services to Bulgarians, such as familiarising them with “the culture and norms of British Society”.

According to the Bulgarian state documents online, they worked also for electoral commissions located in London that facilitate voting by Bulgarian citizens abroad.

This is not an isolated case of British authorities discovering Russian intelligence operations within the UK.

In Salisbury, Wiltshire in 2018, Russian agents attempted to kill former double agent Sergei Skripal, and his daughter Yulia, by using the deadly nerve gas Novichok. Both Skripal and Bailey as well as the responding detective were treated at a hospital and they could have been killed.

In the same year, a local woman named Dawn Sturgess, who had no connection to the Skripals, died after she was exposed to a nerve agent that had been hidden in a bottle of perfume in Wiltshire.

In London, in 2006, the former Russian intelligence officer Alexander Litvinenko died after being poisoned. Assassins who worked for the Russian government were responsible.

The latest incident occurs as Britain intensifies its efforts to combat external threats. It recently passed a new National Security Bill, which aims to update its espionage law and provide “law enforcement agencies and intelligence agencies with updated and new tools to deterrence, detect, and disrupt modern-day state threats.”

The UK Government declared:

This act brings together new and vital measures to protect British citizens, modernize anti-espionage legislation and address the changing threat to national security.

This new legislation makes the UK a more difficult target for states that wish to commit hostile acts against it, including espionage and foreign interference, (including our political system), assassination, sabotage, and other acts which endanger lives.

The new powers ensure that the UK will remain the toughest operating environment in the world for foreign actors who engage in malign activities.

The UK is still most at risk from Russia, but we’ve seen China interfere in UK communities, and Iran has been making concerted attempts to kidnap or kill British citizens or UK residents.

More arrests and charges are expected.