By Sue Anne Pressley
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, September 15, 1998; Page A01
The arrests, carried out Saturday, ended the most extensive espionage effort involving Cuban agents ever uncovered here, U.S. Attorney Thomas E. Scott said. He described the activities of the eight men and two women as an attempt "to strike at the very heart of our national security system."
Congressional sources told the Associated Press that the arrests were timed to thwart a planned operation by Cuban agents. But officials at a news conference here said they were not aware of any such plan. They would not comment on why the arrests came at this time or on what sort of damaging information, if any, might have been collected by the Cubans under arrest.
Among other things, the group of clandestine agents allegedly infiltrated several anti-Castro organizations in Miami-Dade County, including Brothers to the Rescue and the Democracy Movement. But officials did not link the espionage charges to the February 1996 incident in which two small private planes belonging to Brothers to the Rescue were shot down by Cuban warplanes off the Cuban coast -- an incident that touched off an international furor.
However, the officials charged that those arrested attempted to penetrate several U.S. military bases in the area, including U.S. Southern Command Headquarters in Miami, MacDill Air Force Base near Tampa and the Boca Chica Naval Air Station in Key West. Although Miami's anti-Castro exile groups have been infiltrated by Cuban intelligence agents in the past, the alleged attempts to spy on U.S. military installations were depicted as particularly serious.
"This case represents an unprecedented law enforcement effort in the prevention of espionage in south Florida," Scott said. "To say the least . . . [the alleged spy] operation was sophisticated."
Search warrants at several south Florida locations yielded disguises, radios, antennae, maps, computer equipment, money and other items. Included were many computer diskettes in which the alleged spies referred to themselves as "comrades" and exchanged coded messages.
The foreign counterintelligence squad of the FBI's Miami office had been investigating the group since 1995, said Hector M. Pesquera, special agent in charge of the FBI here. "This is a significant blow to the Cuban government," Pesquera said, adding that Castro's espionage efforts here are "now in a complete state of disarray."
Pesquera said that activities at the military bases were "never compromised."
The alleged spy ring included Cuban nationals posing as U.S. citizens and Cuban Americans, officials said. Depending on their level of leadership, the suspects could, if convicted, receive maximum sentences of life in prison and fines of $750,000.
Federal officials identified three of the 10 arrested as senior agents of the group, who communicated directly with the Cuban government about their activities and received instructions from Cuban officials.
They are Manuel Viramontes (aka "Giro"), 31, a Cuban national and captain in the Cuban military who has been in the United States since 1992 and had a North Miami Beach address; Ruben Campa (aka "Vicky"), 33, who federal officials said was temporarily recalled to Cuba last fall; and Luis Medina (aka "Allan"), 30, a Hollywood, Fla., resident who is an officer in the Cuban equivalent of the Central Intelligence Agency, the General Directorate of Intelligence.
According to U.S. District Court documents released today, Medina had operated in the Tampa area from as early as 1992, reporting information to Cuba about operations at MacDill. He was later transferred to Miami "specifically to lead the effort to infiltrate the U.S. Southern Command," court papers said, referring to the unified command of Army, Navy, Air Force and Special Operations units that supports U.S. interests in the southern theater.
Another alleged agent, according to court documents, was Antonio Guerrero Jr., 39, a civilian employee of the public works division at Boca Chica, who had been ordered to report any "unusual exercises, maneuvers, and other activity related to combat readiness" there.
FBI officials concluded Guerrero had "reported detailed information regarding the daily activities at the air station, including . . . the types of aircraft being deployed there; precise physical descriptions of . . . a structure on the air station which he suspects of being prepared for top-secret activity; [and] the use of supposed 'electronic warfare' aircraft."
Alejandro Alonso, 39, allegedly was assigned to report information about the Miami-based exile group Democracy Movement, and, as a boat pilot, participated in flotillas in demonstrations against the Cuban government. A married couple, Nilo and Linda Hernandez, ages 44 and 41 respectively, allegedly were assigned, among other tasks, "to undertake a long-term surveillance mission of two Cuban agents who were thought to be at risk of defection to U.S. authorities," according to court papers.
And Rene Gonzalez, 42, allegedly was assigned to report on anti-Castro groups. With Democracy Movement, he served for the past three years as undersecretary of the air groups, according to the organization's president, Ramon Saul Sanchez.
Sanchez said in an interview that Gonzalez was a skilled pilot who saved Sanchez's life when he made an emergency landing near Homestead, Fla., as the group was protesting the pope's visit to Cuba earlier this year. "We are shocked because of the way he used to conduct himself," said Sanchez, who stressed that Gonzalez was "not involved in critical decision-making."
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