Ten alleged secret agents spying for Russia were arrested on Sunday by the FBI and two of the defendants are from Montclair. The defendants known as “Richard Murphy” and “Cynthia Murphy” were arrested at their Marquette Road residence (pictured) in Montclair, and are expected to appear in federal court in Manhattan today.
The “Murphys,” along with six other individuals, were arrested for allegedly carrying out long-term, “deep-cover” assignments in the U.S. on behalf of the Russian Federation, the Justice Department announced today. Two additional defendants were also arrested Sunday for allegedly participating in the same Russian intelligence program within the U.S.
In total, 11 defendants, including the 10 arrested, are charged in two separate criminal complaints with conspiring to act as unlawful agents of the Russian Federation within the United States. Nine of the defendants are also charged with conspiracy to commit money laundering.
Details on the other defendants in the jump…
Vicky Pelaez and the defendant known as “Juan Lazaro” were arrested yesterday at their residence in Yonkers, N.Y., and are expected to appear in federal court in Manhattan today. Anna Chapman was arrested in Manhattan yesterday and is expected to appear in federal court in Manhattan today.
The defendants known as “Michael Zottoli” and “Patricia Mills” were arrested yesterday at their residence in Arlington, Va., and are appearing in federal court in Alexandria, Va., today. Defendant Mikhail Semenko was arrested yesterday at his residence in Arlington and is appearing in federal court in Alexandria today. In addition, the defendants known as “Donald Howard Heathfield” and “Tracey Lee Ann Foley” were arrested at their residence in Boston yesterday and are appearing in federal court in Boston today. The defendant known as “Christopher R. Metsos” remains at large.
The charges are filed in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York. The charge of conspiracy to act as an agent of a foreign government without notifying the U.S. Attorney General carries a maximum penalty of five years in prison. All the defendants are charged with this violation. The charge of conspiracy to commit money laundering carries a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison. All the defendants except Chapman and Semenko are charged with this violation.
This case is the result of a multi-year investigation conducted by the FBI; the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York; and the Counterespionage Section and the Office of Intelligence within the Justice Department’s National Security Division.
The prosecution is being handled by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Michael Farbiarz, Glen Kopp and Jason Smith of the Terrorism and International Narcotics Unit of the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York, and Trial Attorneys Kathleen Kedian and Richard Scott of the Counterespionage Section of the Justice Department’s National Security Division.
The charges and allegations contained in the criminal complaints are merely allegations, and the defendants are presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty.
Oh, snap! Russian spies in our midst! It doesn’t get any better than this.
Is Lasermike involved?
does montclair assess your property differently if you’re a russian spy?
Montclair is a great place for the “Murphy’s” to mix in. Montclair is a hot bed for anti-American sentiment, just read this forum each day.
If Sarah Palin looks at Russia from her house, doesn’t that automatically make her a Russian spy?
Whoa, just googled earth the house, the spy industry must pay well.
I agree Herb, great place to blend in!
Northern New Jersey
Socialist Party
c/o 126 Chestnut St #3
Montclair, NJ 07042
Next meeting:
Next Meeting: June 27, 2010
12:30 pm @ Montclair Public Library 50 So. Fullerton Montclair, NJ Info: 201-803-7574
No wonder the library needed money to stay open…..
The Russians were spying on your town’s secretariat to remind them of the good old days.
Amazing that Russian spies would stick out enough in Montklair to get caught.
BTW- Sarah Palin never said she could “see Russia from her house” but it seems some of you in Montklair can see Russian spies from yours, hahaha, (thats good one by Herb I’m not even gonna wait for the kudos).
Wow! Now *that* is an interesting story.
“If Sarah Palin looks at Russia from her house, doesn’t that automatically make her a Russian spy?”
Spying is a form of intelligence, so I somehow doubt it.
“… giving you a number and taking away your name …”
I’m stunned – these people were living practically around the block from me.
Just in case you really think you know your neighbors…..
The Russians are coming…The Russians are coming
Was the house in foreclosure?
Their habit of standing in line for toilet paper at Whole Foods gave them away.
I just hope these Russians love their children, too.
No surprise. How else can a person afford the real estate tax in Baristaville?? They probably felt secure in the Peoples Republic of Montclair.
can they apply for a tax refund for being’ diplomats’?
From the complaint:
http://www.justice.gov/opa/documents/062810complaint2.pdf
p. 13 Paragraph 34.
34. To cite another example, during the summer of 2009, the New Jersey Conspirators argued with the SVR in a series of encrypted messages about the status of the Montclair House, into which the New Jersey Conspirators had recently moved. The New Jersey Conspirators contended that they should be permitted to own the Montclair House; Moscow Center responded that the Director of the SVR had personally determined that Center would own the Montclair House, but would permit the New Jersey Conspirators to live in it. The New Jersey Conspirators wrote:
In order to preserve positive working relationship, we would not further contest your desire to own this house.
. . . We are under an impression that C. views our ownership of the house as a deviation from the original purpose of our mission here. We’d like to assure you that we do remember what i t i s . From our perspective, purchase of the house was solely a natural progression of our prolonged stay here. I t was a convenient way to solve the housing issue, plus to ‘do as the Romans do’ in a society that values home ownership. . . . [W]e didn’t forget that the house was bought under fictitious names.
Does the guy look like Kevin Costner?
As a Nets fan I just have to ask: Is this going to effect free agency and our Russian owner at all? No? Moving on….
When I was a kid, Russian spies had names like Alexandrovich or Chaikovsky. Today, it’s Murphy? What’s up with that?
Dibs on their property tax rebate!
Dibs on the House and the new montclair spy museum!
We’ll have Sean Young and Gene Hackman in for sure!
Are we gonna nuke Moscow if the KGB doesn’t pay the Murphys’ tax bill this quarter?
No. The council will vote to forgive the Russian spy agency’s debt, just as they do with the Montclair Parking Authority.
It’s called professional courtesy.
Wow, this story is amazing: you can buy a house in Upper Montclair for under $500,000?!
Murphy???? Irish people don’t spy. This must be a mistake.
I can’t understand why the neighbors are saying that they didn’t notice anything unusual.
I understand that “Murphy” wore a dinner jacket and bow tie at all hours of the day. The house reeked of borscht and truckloads of potatoes and beets were delivered weekly. “Mrs. Murphy” wore a babushka. When the kids were called home for supper, they would answer the ringing by speaking into their shoes.
Perhaps most telling, and most sinister — on Halloween, neighborhood children who rand the bell received airline bottles of Stoly.
Toss them all in jail, & let ‘em rot there.
Why give them a trial? The do not accept our system of government, that would afford them that.
They are here to spy and to act not in our behalf, as American citizens. Call them what they are = SPIES looking to hurt our country, or our people or our security. Garbage, ‘ya know what you do with garbage ? You throw it out.
In Russia, an American would allready be shot.
I do not condone that. Just put them where they can be tended to: Jail.
Moscow on Marquette…or as a Russian Curly might chuckle:Nyet,nyet, nyet.
Okay, I’ll try again.
Sandy, before you throw these people under the bus, remember that we share the same biology regardless of ideology.
… the brown monkey sings at midnight….
…. yankee, foxtrot, hotel, victor, charlie…..
Whiskey Tango Foxtrot?
There will be a movie sequel. And when it’s listed alphabetically, it will read “Russians are here, Russians are here, The.”
tudlow
Do you make your decision about people based on their biology and physical characteristics or their ideology and philosophy of life?
Sting has a nice voice but his message in that song is silly.
There are bad guys amongst us. They may love their children but not ours.
“throwing them under the bus” would kill them!
I would not kill them. This ain’t Russia!
I would just put them where “we” could watch them, know what they are doing, and where they are.
I would NOT do that to the offspring.
They need to be be adopted by a loving American family, perhaps one of many Russian families now living in the USA for many years that are now American citizens, so that they would grow up knowing ther culture, and where they came from, and become Americans legally in the future.
They could visit their birth parents in the big room.
DagT, you take yourself (and me in this case) way too seriously. How humorless can you be? Oh, that’s right, among this “patriotic”, Tea Party crowd, only jokes about socialism and liberal pinko Commies are funny. I should just join in…..Montklair, oh hahahaha hee hee hee, the Murphys probably even liked that ridiculous unAmerican football sport we call soccer. Vodka drinking evil fools, all of them.
Seriously, like half of the comments on this story, it was a joke. But yes, Sting does have a nice voice. And your simplistic ideology on politics and gov’t most certainly does not line up with mine, that I know.
Croiagusanam, too funny!!
Sitting here in my nasty capitalist corporate cubicle LMAO
Spoken like in true luddite “all we are saying”, Pete Seeger lionizing, blame America firster pedagical indoctrinator style.
tudlow, while I was shopping in NYC yesterday I picked up a rare copy of “Drunken Gobbledegook/English” dictionary.
I’m sending it to you so that you might decipher the latest semi-literate offering from whatsup.
Oh man, croiagusanam, you are so funny. Gobbledegook, indeed. I often wonder if whatsup knows what the word Luddite means. Who knew that referencing a song from Dream of the Blue Turtles (that I really thought was such a fine musical backdrop for this story) would put the wingnuts in such a tizzy.
I find this whole thing very creepy. Putin was a career KGB Agent. We may think that the cold war is over, but apparently old Vlad doesn’t
“The good news, Mr & Mrs Murphy, you’ll now be working for us, your new names will be Boris and Dora Spenyenko, and you’ll live in a nice Moscow suburban home… what do you think?”
“Uh….vee pdee-fer death penalty…”