4 Russian spies posed as Canadians: U.S.
Monday, June 28, 2010 | 10:30 PM ET
CBC News
Three accused Russian spies now in custody, along with another man still at large, posed as Canadians to cover their tracks while on "deep-cover" assignments in the United States, the U.S. Justice Department said Monday.
The three were among 10 arrested as alleged agents of Russia's intelligence service, the department said in a release.
The defendants known as Donald Howard Heathfield and Tracey Lee Ann Foley claimed to be born in Canada, while Patricia Mills claimed to be a Canadian citizen, court papers filed in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York showed. The FBI is still looking for Christopher Metsos, who also claimed to be a Canadian citizen.
Heathfield assumed the identity of a dead Canadian, investigators said.
The case was the result of a multi-year investigation by the FBI, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York and the U.S. Justice Department.
The FBI alleged that the defendants were living and operating in the U.S. with the long-term goal of becoming sufficiently "Americanized" that "they could gather information about the United States for Russia" and could "successfully recruit" sources who are able "to infiltrate United States policy-making circles."
"This is something right out of the Cold War days from the '50s and '60s," said Fred Burton, a former special agent with the U.S. State Department, who is a security expert at Austin, Texas-based STRATFOR.
He said it's a textbook Russian intelligence operation.
"They like third-country operations," he said, adding that the most obvious choices for operations running against the United States are Mexico and Canada.
All 10 people face charges of conspiracy to act as unregistered agents of a foreign government without notifying the U.S. government, and they could face five years in prison if convicted.
All but two were charged with conspiracy to commit money laundering, which carries a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison.
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