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The toughest guys among Russian spies
A mole in the heart of the Kremlin informed the United States of the Russian plot
The US Department of Justice reported Tuesday that Mexican Héctor Alejandro Cabrera Fuentes has been arrested in Miami for a lawsuit accusing him of working as an agent for the Russian government within the United States without notifying the prosecution. According to court documents, Moscow recruited Cabrera Fuentes in 2019 and ordered him to photograph the car license plate of an American government official. When the defendant tried to leave Miami this weekend for Mexico, an officer of the Customs and Border Protection Service found the image of the vehicle on his mobile phone, in addition to conversations with a member of the Kremlin, and stopped him at the airport.
In the first contact between Cabrera Fuentes and the Russian government official, he was instructed to rent a specific apartment in Miami-Dade County (Florida), but not to give his real name, nor tell his family. The Justice Department report explains that the detainee traveled to Russia to inform him of the details of the lease, approved by the official. In February of this year the Mexican citizen, based in Singapore, traveled again to Moscow to meet with his Kremlin contact. At the meeting, the official physically described a car of a member of the US Government and ordered him to locate it, get the license plate number and write down the physical location of the vehicle. The next meeting to discuss the assignment was scheduled for April or May.
According to court documents, Cabrera Fuentes traveled on February 13 to Miami from Mexico City. The next day, a security guard in the area where the US Government source resided approached the defendant after he was able to enter the condominium because he practically stuck his vehicle to one who did have access. While the guard was talking to Cabrera Fuentes, his traveling companion - with whom he is married -, he went down to take a picture of the American official's vehicle license plate. The detainee explained that he was visiting a person whose name the guard did not know, so he asked him to leave the premises.
Last Sunday night, Cabrera Fuentes and his travel companion - the documents do not specify whether he is male or female - arrived at the Miami International Airport to board a flight to Mexico City. A member of the Customs and Border Protection Service (CBP) inspected the companion's phone and found the photograph of the license plate in the “newly removed” folder. The defendant admitted that he had commissioned him to take her. When the officer checked his mobile phone, he found the same photo and text messages with the Russian official who revealed that he "started and directed the meetings."
Cabrera Fuentes admitted to CBP officers that a Russian official ordered him to take the photograph of the car license plate. The hearing in which the charges against the defendant will be read is scheduled for March 3 in the Miami trial court.