Alejandro Alonso, a member of a spy ring that attempted to infiltrate U.S. military installations in South Florida for the Cuban government, was sentenced Friday to seven years' imprisonment.

He was the first member of the group to be sentenced. Five others who have pleaded guilty will be sentenced over the next several months, starting next week with Linda and Nilo Hernandez.

Alonso had pleaded guilty to being an agent for a foreign country. He is one of 10 people arrested in September 1998 on charges that they ran a spy ring that targeted U.S. military installations and Cuban exile groups.

Prosecutors said they tried to infiltrate the U.S. Southern Command and planted an agent at the U.S. Navy's Boca Chica Naval Air Station near Key West.

Four other people were added in May 1999 to the list of defendants.

``I can only say that I did wrong. I am repentant. I apologize to this court and to the whole world,'' Alonso said after U.S. District Judge Joan Lenard passed sentence during a 10-minute hearing.

She chastised him for disloyalty to the United States, then followed a sentence recommendation that was negotiated by government attorneys and the appointed defense attorney, Stuart Adelstein.

``These types of crimes have important national security implications,'' said prosecutor Caroline Heck Miller.

The alleged ringleader of the ring, Gerardo Hernandez, was charged in May 1999 with conspiracy to commit murder in connection with the downing by Cuban warplanes Feb. 24, 1996, of two Cessnas flown by four members of Brothers to the Rescue. All four Miami fliers died.

The other suspects were accused of acting as unregistered agents of a foreign government and other, lesser charges related to espionage.

According to prosecutors, Alonso, code-named ``Franklin,'' was assigned to report on the Democracy Movement, a Miami anti-Castro group. A boat pilot, Alonso lived in Miami and took part in the organization's demonstrations and sailings.

After his arrest, Alonso turned prosecution's evidence in the case, said an affidavit by FBI agent Jose Orihuela.

Alonso told investigators where to find a fake ID kit (hidden inside a leather notebook), a page of codes (in the false bottom of a lamp) and a pad of water-soluble paper used for secret messages (inside a stereo speaker).

Prosecutors said the spies called themselves The Wasp Network -- La Red Avispa  -- and said they were linked by a beeper system. Once, when Alonso did not answer his page quickly enough, Hernandez reportedly reprimanded him, saying that ``full combat readiness'' was expected from all operatives.

The agents were also tasked with ``influencing U.S. public and private institutions, including law enforcement and political entities,'' the indictment charged.