Russian spy ring: Suspect ‘confesses’ and puts loyalty to KGB before family

Chris McGreal
London Guardian
July 2, 2010

The FBI says that one of the alleged spies accused of being part of a deep cover espionage ring in the US has confessed to working for Russian intelligence and to constructing a fictitious identity. But he has refused to reveal who he really is and said that his loyalty to “the service” is worth more to him than his children.

The revelation by prosecutors came as nine of the alleged spies appeared in court yesterday looking dishevelled, sullen and very unlike the highly trained secret agents the US claims them to be. One of their lawyers said that the evidence against them amounted to no more than proving they had infiltrated cocktail parties and the parent teachers’ association.

In a letter to the New York court, prosecutors said that Juan Lazaro, an academic arrested with his wife, Vicky Pelaez, a newspaper columnist, told investigators that he was in the pay of Russian intelligence and that he had used his wife to deliver information. But Lazaro refused to disclose information about his true identity – he passed himself off as Uruguayan but FBI bugs heard him tell his wife about his family fleeing to Siberia during the second world war – or his work for Moscow.

“Although he loved his son, he would not violate his loyalty to ‘the service’ even for his son,” the letter said in describing Lazaro’s statement. The letter was submitted in opposition to bail for the alleged spies who made brief appearances at courts in Boston, New York and Virginia.

Full article here

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