Couple Plead Guilty to Spying for Cuba

A Florida couple have pleaded guilty to charges that they acted as spies for the Cuban government against the United States, an attorney for one of the defendants said.

George and Marisol Gari, arrested in Orlando, Fla., last month, were part of the “Wasp Network,” a Cuban espionage ring that attempted to infiltrate the Southern Command, the U.S. military headquarters for Latin America, and spied on anti-Castro Cuban exile groups, such as the Cuban American National Foundation, U.S. prosecutors said.

In a closed hearing before U.S. District Judge Ursula Ungaro-Benages on Thursday, Marisol Gari pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to act as an unregistered agent for Cuba in exchange for a second count of spying being dropped, her attorney, Louis Casuso, said.

She faces a maximum of five years in prison and could be deported after her sentence is served.

George Gari pleaded guilty in open court to one count of acting as an unregistered agent for Cuba in exchange for a second charge being dropped by prosecutors, Casuso said. He faces a maximum of 10 years in prison.

It was unclear whether the Garis will assist the FBI with its ongoing investigation into the Cuban spy network.

George Gari, code-named “Luis,” was born in New York and moved to Cuba as a child, where he was trained as a spy, according to authorities.

He arrived in Miami with his wife in 1990. From 1991 to 1998, he participated in failed efforts to help other agents get jobs at the Southern Command and monitored the activities of members of Cuban exile groups, federal authorities said.

His wife, code-named “Margot,” worked at the U.S. post office at Miami International Airport.