Russian spy suspect 'admits using alias'

Within hours of his capture, US prosecutors say Russian spy suspect Juan Lazaro admitted his name was an alias.

Lazaro’s admission – and defiance – was revealed yesterday by federal prosecutors arguing against bail for him, his wife and another couple with children.

The US government claims those defendants and seven others were part of a spy ring on assignment to infiltrate America’s cities and suburbs for the Russian intelligence service.

Their cover was so deep, “there is no inkling at all that their children who they live with have any idea their parents are Russian agents,” assistant US attorney Michael Farbiarz told US magistrate Judge Ronald L Ellis.

Mr Farbiarz warned that a powerful and sophisticated network of US-based Russian agents was eager to help defendants in the spy ring flee the country if they were released on bail.

“There are a lot of Russian government officials in the United States who are actively assisting this conspiracy,” he said.

The judge ruled that two defendants, Cynthia and Richard Murphy, should remain in custody because there was no other way to guarantee they would not flee since it is unclear who they really are.

But he set bail of $250,000 (€199,000) for Lazaro’s wife, prominent Spanish-language journalist Vicky Pelaez, a US citizen born in Peru, saying she did not appear to be trained as a spy.

The judge required electronic monitoring and home detention and said she would not be freed before Tuesday, giving prosecutors time to appeal.

The judge ruled after Mr Farbiarz said the evidence against the defendants continued to mount and the case was solid.

“Judge, this is a case where the evidence is extraordinarily strong,” Mr Farbiarz said. “Prosecutors don’t get cases like this very often.”

The decision to set bail for one defendant came as police on the island nation of Cyprus searched airports, ports and yacht marinas to find a man who had been going by the name Christopher Metsos, who disappeared after a judge there freed him on bail.

Metsos failed to show up on Wednesday for a required meeting with police. He was charged by US authorities with supplying funds to the other members of the spy ring.

A spokesman for the US Embassy in Cyprus denied local media reports that Metsos was in US custody at the embassy compound, and the Russian Foreign Ministry said it had no reason to believe Metsos was in Russia.

In New York, prosecutors cited new evidence such as $80,000 (€64,000) in new $100 bills found in the safe-deposit box of the Murphys, who had been living in a New Jersey home paid for with money from the Russian intelligence service.

Other evidence included the discovery of multiple mobile phones and currencies in a safe-deposit box and other “tools of the trade when they’re in this business,” Mr Farbiarz said.

He said the spy ring consisted of people who for decades had worked to Americanise themselves while engaging in secret global travel with false passports, secret code words, fake names, invisible ink, encrypted radio transmissions and techniques so sophisticated that prosecutors chose not to describe them in court papers.

The prosecutors’ claims were countered by lawyers for several defendants who said their clients were harmless and should be released on bail.

“It’s all hyperbole, your honour,” said attorney Donna Newman on behalf of Richard Murphy.

Lawyers for Lazaro asked to postpone his bail hearing just hours after prosecutors revealed in a letter to the judge that their client had made incriminating statements.

US authorities said in their court filing that Lazaro made a lengthy statement after his Sunday arrest in which he discussed some details of the operation.

Among other things, prosecutors said, he admitted that Juan Lazaro was not his real name, that he was not born in Uruguay as he had long claimed, that his home in Yonkers had been paid for by Russian intelligence and that his wife had passed letters to the “Service” on his behalf.

He also told investigators that even though he loved his son, “he would not violate his loyalty to the ’Service’ even for his son,” three assistant US attorneys wrote in a court memo.

They added that Lazaro, who investigators claim spent at least part of his childhood in Siberia, also would not reveal his true name.

Earlier in the day, the lawyer for another suspect, Donald Heathfield, told a judge the case against his client was “extremely thin”.

“It essentially suggests that they successfully infiltrated neighbourhoods, cocktail parties and the PTA,” attorney Peter Krupp said.

A judge in a federal court in Boston gave Heathfield and his wife, Tracey Lee Ann Foley, of Cambridge, Massachusetts, until July 16 to prepare for a bail hearing.