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The Illegals Program is a name given by the United States Department of Justice to an alleged network of spies planted in the U.S. by the Russian Foreign Intelligence Service (known by its abbreviation in the Russian language as the SVR). The multi-year investigation culminated in June 2010 with the filing of charges and the arrest of 10 suspects in the US and an eleventh suspect in Cyprus. The 11th suspect skipped bail the day after his arrest.
Background
Using forged documents, the spies were alleged to have assumed the identities of "citizens or legal residents of the countries to which they are deployed" and had enrolled at American universities and joined professional organizations as a means of further infiltrating spies into government circles. Two of the individuals named were Richard and Cynthia Murphy, who had resided in the U.S. since the mid-1990s, living in Hoboken, New Jersey before purchasing a home in suburban Montclair. Another couple named were journalist Vicky Pelaez and Juan Lazaro of Yonkers, New York. The complaint alleges that couples had been arranged in Russia to "co-habit in the country to which they are assigned", going as far as having children together to help maintain their deep covert status.
The complaints filed in United States Federal Court claim that Russian agents in the U.S. passed information back to the SVR by messages hidden inside digital photographs, written in disappearing ink, ad hoc wireless networks and shortwave radio transmissions, as well as by agents swapping identical bags while passing each other in the stairwell of a train station. Messages and materials were passed in such places as Grand Central Terminal and Central Park, including an incident cited where a pair of spies met on a park bench with one asking "Excuse me, but haven't we met in California, last summer" to which the other was to respond "No, I think it was the Hamptons".
Ten of the agents involved were arrested by U.S. authorities in a series of raids in Boston, Montclair, Yonkers, New York and Northern Virginia. The individuals were charged with money laundering (which can carry a charge of up to 20 years in prison) and failing to register as agents of a foreign government. No charges were offered that the individuals involved had gained access to classified material, though contacts had been made with a former intelligence official and with a scientist involved in developing bunker buster bombs. One of the suspects, Christopher R. Metsos, was detained while attempting to transit through Cyprus.
Suspects
Tracey Lee Ann Foley and Donald Heathfield
Donald Heathfield and his wife Tracey Lee Ann Foley had a home in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Heathfield had earned an M.P.A. degree from the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University, where he was described as a "joiner". Heathfield claimed to have been the son of a Canadian diplomat and to have studied at a school in the Czech Republic. A fellow graduate from the Kennedy School noted that Heathfield kept careful track of his nearly 200 classmates, who included President of Mexico Felipe Calderón. He was a professional member of the World Future Society, described by the Boston Herald as "a think tank on future technologies that holds conferences featuring top government scientists.". His wife, Tracey Lee Ann Foley, worked for a real estate firm in Somerville, Massachusetts The couple had two teenaged sons.
Juan Lazaro and Vicky Pelaez
Vicky Pelaez, a Peruvian national, and her husband Juan Lazaro were arrested at their home in Yonkers, New York. Pelaez had been a television reporter in Peru and had been a columnist at El Diario La Prensa in New York City. Lazaro is a professor of political science, who had claimed to be born in Uruguay, but had acknowledged in FBI surveillance recordings that he had been raised in the former Soviet Union. In her writings, Pelaez was often critical of U.S. policy in Latin America and had supported liberation movements in those countries. In 1984, she had been kidnapped by the Túpac Amaru Revolutionary Movement who demanded that a video of their views be broadcast on television in exchange for her release, though a cameraman who was also kidnapped claimed that Pelaez had been a willing participant in the kidnapping. Lazaro wrote a 1990 article for a European publication that spoke "glowingly" of the Shining Path.
Cynthia and Richard Murphy
Richard and Cynthia Murphy, a couple with two young daughters, were arrested at their home in Montclair, New Jersey. Richard Murphy used a false birth certificate that claimed he had been born in Philadelphia, while his wife said that she had been born in New York City as "Cynthia A. Hopkins". The two had earlier lived in an apartment in Hoboken since arriving in the United States in the mid-1990s. They had purchased the suburban home for $481,000 in 2008. When they purchased the Montclair home, the couple argued with their handlers as to who would officially own the house, with the ultimate decision being that it would be owned by "Moscow center".
In 2009, Cynthia Murphy developed contacts in New York City financial circles as a means to obtain details about the global gold market. Richard Murphy was criticized by his wife for his poor information gathering and suggested that he pursue individuals with connections to the White House. The couple had also been tasked with obtaining information about U.S. policy in Afghanistan, the nuclear program of Iran and the latest Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty talks.
References
- Shifrel, Scott; Kennedy, Helen; Sheridan, Michael (June 29, 2010). "Russian spy ring: 11th suspect arrested in Cyprus; Moscow calls spy claims 'baseless and improper'". New York Daily News.
- "Russian spy suspect goes missing in Cyprus, say police". BBC News. June 30, 2010.
- ^ Savage, Charles. "U.S. Charges 11 With Acting as Agents for Russia", The New York Times, June 28, 2010. Accessed June 28, 2010.
- Montanaro, Domenico. "Ten arrested, accused of spying for Russia", MSNBC, June 28, 2010. Accessed June 28, 2010.
- ^ Staff. "Ten arrested in US on charges of spying for Russia", BBC News, June 29, 2010. Accessed June 28, 2010.
- Testosterone Affects Some Women's Career Choices
- Goodnough, Abby. "Suspect in Spy Case Cultivated Friends Made at Harvard", The New York Times, June 30, 2010. Accessed June 30, 2010.
- Gonzalez, Juan. "Suspected Russian spy Vicky Pelaez, a Spanish-language journalist, led many lives", Daily News (New York), June 30, 2010. Accessed June 30, 2010.
- ^ Bautista, Justo. "Authorities: Montclair pair long-term suburban spies for Russia ", The Record (Bergen County), June 28, 2010. Accessed June 30, 2010.
- Staff. "Accused Russian spies lived deep under cover in Montclair", The Star-Ledger, June 28, 2010. Accessed June 30, 2010.