In 1997 the FBI made headlines by announcing arrests of 5 Cuban Intelligence officers on US soil. The five, Gerardo Hernandez, Antonio Guerrero, Ramon Lubanino, Fernando Gozalez, and Rene Gonzalez, also known as the Cuban Five were all eventually convicted of conspiracy to commit espionage, conspiracy to commit murder and as slew of other charges. But why and how did they get found out?
Well, in the 1960s and 1970s, several U.S. based exile groups such as Alpha 66 and Coordination of United Revolutionary Organizations (CORU) who launching attacks against Cuba. The Cuban government in turn sought ways to combat these groups and created a spy organization to infiltrate them. All of the Cuban Five were trained and sent over to infiltrate these organizations, which they ended up doing. The spies created a back story of deflection to the US which brought the attention of several exile groups. This easily granted them access into the groups where they began collecting information and sending it back to Cuba.
Two of the organizations infiltrated, CANF and Brothers to the Rescue, were operating together to fly planes into Cuba and distribute propaganda material. The spies were able to collect information and send it back to Cuba that allowed the Cuban military to know when and where the planes would be. As a result, they shot down a few of these plans.
Eventually, the FBI was tipped due to the spies becoming more and more brazen, even procuring C4 and blowing up hotels. All five are arrested in 1998 but it is believed they operated from as early as 1996.
The Cuban government eventually did acknowledge them as Cuban intelligence spies but denied for many years.
Some of the five are still in prison while others like Rene Gonzalez were released back to Cuba during prisoner exchanges.
Ben