Infamous American double agent Robert Hanssen, who spied for Russia, dies in jail

One of probably the most infamous American double brokers has died in jail.

Robert Hanssen, a former FBI agent, was sentenced in 2002 to life behind bars after pleading responsible to spying for the Soviet Union and later Russia for over 20 years.

He had divulged details about US intelligence-gathering since at the very least 1985 and was believed to have been partly accountable for the deaths of at the very least three Soviet officers who had been working for US intelligence and had been executed after being uncovered.

The 79-year-old was discovered unresponsive in his cell at a federal jail in Florence, Colorado, on Monday and was later pronounced useless, jail officers mentioned.

He is believed to have died of pure causes, an individual acquainted with the matter informed The Associated Press.

Spy took greater than $1.4m in money and diamonds

Hanssen was paid greater than $1.4m (£1.1m) in money, financial institution funds, diamonds and Rolex watches in trade for a wealth of extremely categorised nationwide safety data, together with intensive element about how US officers had tapped into Russian spy operations.

He didn’t undertake an clearly lavish way of life, as an alternative dwelling in a modest suburban dwelling in Virginia together with his household of six kids.

He would later say he was motivated by cash moderately than ideology, however in a letter written to his Soviet handlers in 1985 he defined a big payoff may have brought about issues as a result of he couldn’t spend it with out setting off alarms.

Read extra:
Russian spy working in British embassy in Berlin jailed for greater than 13 years
Russian ship ‘spying’ round wind farms off UK coast in potential sabotage plot

Traitor tipped off Moscow to secret American spy tunnel

Under the alias “Ramon Garcia”, Hanssen handed some 6,000 paperwork and 26 pc discs to his handlers, authorities mentioned.

They detailed eavesdropping strategies, helped affirm the identification of Russian double brokers and divulged different state secrets and techniques.

Officials additionally consider he tipped off Moscow to a secret tunnel the Americans had constructed underneath the Soviet embassy in Washington for eavesdropping.

Hanssen’s duplicity went undetected for years, however later investigations discovered a number of crimson flags had been missed.

He turned the main target of a hunt for a Russian mole and was caught taping a garbage bag filled with secrets and techniques to the underside of a footbridge in a park in a “dead drop” for his Russian handlers.

His story was made into a movie known as Breach in 2007, starring Chris Cooper as Hanssen and Ryan Phillippe as a younger bureau operative who helps to deliver him down.