Mexican National Accused Of Spying For Russia In Florida
A Mexican national arrested in Miami on Monday is accused of acting as a spy for Russia while digging up information on a confidential U.S. government source.
Hector Alejandro Cabrera Fuentes, who is a resident of Singapore, was prevented from boarding a plane from Miami International Airport to Mexico City on Sunday following a search of his and his wife’s cellphones by U.S. Customs and Border Protection, the U.S. Justice Department said Tuesday.
The search uncovered a photo of a license plate that belonged to the government source, who had been providing information to the U.S. about the Russian Intelligence Service. The photo had been deleted from Fuentes’ wife’s phone, but not before it was sent to Fuentes through the messaging app WhatsApp, authorities said.
The 35-year-old allegedly confessed that he had instructed his wife, who is from Mexico, to take the photo after he was recruited by a Russian government official in 2019. He told U.S. authorities he was recruited after his second wife and two children were detained by Russian customs officials during a visit in March, according to a copy of the criminal complaint. It’s not clear whether his two wives know about each other.
Fuentes said that after his wife and children were detained, he traveled to Russia to see them and was approached there by an official he believed worked for the Russian government. That individual, in a later meeting, showed him a hard-copy printout of his Gmail account from 2015 and said that he knew Fuentes had been looking for real estate in the Miami area. Fuentes said he confirmed the authenticity of the printout and agreed that he had been looking for real estate, according to the complaint.
The Russian official acknowledged the situation his family was in and allegedly told Fuentes that “we can help each other.”
The two men met again in Russia in September and Fuentes said he was instructed to rent property at a condominium complex in Miami where the U.S....
