From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englishnest of spies/thieves/intrigue etcnest of spies/thieves/intrigue etcHIDE/MAKE IT HARD TO FIND OR SEEa place where people are secretly doing a lot of illegal or dishonest things → nest
Examples from the Corpus
nest of spies/thieves/intrigue etc• Perhaps we're in the middle of a nest of spies whom Meredith-Lee was about to unmask.• Neville Chamberlain wrote that the Cabinet was a nest of intrigue, which was, considering everything, an understatement. 