Mariano Faget | |
---|---|
Supervisory District Administration Officer at Immigration and Naturalization Service | |
Termination | 2000 |
Personal details | |
Born | July 2, 1945 Havana |
Died | ? |
Spouse | Maria Faget |
Parents |
|
Alma mater | Dade County Junior College |
Military service | |
Branch/service | United States Army Reserve |
Mariano Faget is a naturalized American citizen and was an employee of the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) in Miami for over 35 years, notable for becoming at the time one of the highest-ranking Cuban-Americans at INS, and a District Supervisory Officer of the agency.[1][2] Faget is the first INS official ever charged with espionage charges against the United States.[3]
One month before his scheduled retirement from the INS, he was arrested by the Federal Bureau of Investigation on espionage charges, accused of selling information on the movements of Cuban exiles to the communist government of Cuba in exchange for business favors when the Cuba-America trade embargo would inevitably be lifted.[4][5][6] Faget denied these charges but was found guilty on all four counts. It was revealed that he had been fed false information by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) in a complex sting operation that lasted over a year, called "Operation False Blue."[7][2] He was sentenced by US District Judge Alan Stephen Gold to a 5-year prison term.[8]
This was found ironic by the Cuban exile community in Little Havana because his father, Mariano Faget Diaz, had a reputation as one of the most brutal anti-Castro and anti-Communist police officers in the Batista regime, accused of torturing and murdering those he suspected of having communist affiliations.[9]
Journalist Alfonso Chardy at the Miami Herald wrote: "Accused Cuban spy Mariano Faget Jr. has lived a life filled with ironies."[10]
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