Nearly 20 years in the past, FBI agent Richard Garcia was assigned to a covert operation that would result in the arrest of essentially the most damaging spy in the historical past of the company, Robert Hanssen. Hanssen’s demise in jail at the age of seventy nine has brought back memories of the case that despatched shockwaves via the intelligence group and changed the lives of these concerned.
Top secret began working for the FBI in 1976 and began double-crossing the bureau in 1985, selling top secret paperwork to the USSR and Russia, compromising the identities of undercover spies. His espionage led to the arrest and imprisonment of three US sources and the execution of two extra. In trade for his betrayals, the Russians paid Hanssen US$1.four million.
The FBI and US intelligence apparatus ultimately caught up with Hanssen, and in November 2000, they devised a plan to put him underneath surveillance by transferring him to a bogus job on the Bureau the place operatives could monitor him. Richard Garcia was assigned as Hanssen’s fake superior, while 26-year-old undercover operative Eric O’Neill posed as Hanssen’s administrative aide.
Over the course of the investigation, Garcia would take Hanssen to a shooting vary whereas brokers conducted searches. In February 2001, 300 agents have been engaged on the case and in the end arrested Hanssen during an tried dead drop. He pleaded guilty to fifteen counts of espionage and was sentenced to life in jail without the potential of parole..