Couple arrested with huge amount of cash and history of extensive European travel now allegedly pawns in diplomatic game  

Maria Mayer and Ludwig Gisch settled in Slovenia’s capital, Ljubljana, in 2017, with their two young children. People who met the couple tended to like them; the new arrivals from Latin America were friendly but never overbearing, inquisitive but never pushy.

Mayer opened an online art gallery, while Gisch ran an IT startup. They told friends that a nagging fear of street crime at home in Argentina had prompted their move to Europe. Peaceful, mountainous Slovenia offered a refreshing change of pace.

In interviews with about a dozen people who knew one or both of the couple, two words kept cropping up: “ordinary” and “nice”. Neighbours insisted the people living at No 35 were a run-of-the-mill family, and said the children could often be heard playing in the garden, shrieking in Spanish.

It therefore came as a shock when, early in December, Mayer and Gisch were the targets of one of the most secretive and well-coordinated police and intelligence operations in Slovenia’s recent history.

Officers swarmed the house, arresting the couple and taking their two children into social care. Police also raided an office owned by the couple. Among the finds, according to a source with knowledge of the investigation: an “enormous” amount of cash; so much, in fact, that it took hours to count.

In late January, Slovenian outlets broke news of the arrests, linking the pair to Russian intelligence. Sources in Ljubljana told the Guardian this week that “Maria and Ludwig” were in fact elite Russian spies known as “illegals”. The arrests came after Slovenia received a tipoff from a foreign intelligence service.