The Russian Sleeper Agent Next Door

Summary

REDACTED: Declassified Mysteries with Luke Lamanna

Episode: The Russian Sleeper Agent Next Door
Release Date: April 8, 2025

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Introduction

In this gripping episode of REDACTED: Declassified Mysteries, host Luke Lamanna delves into the shadowy world of Russian sleeper agents embedded within the United States. Titled "The Russian Sleeper Agent Next Door," the episode unpacks the intricate espionage operations that led to the infiltration of ordinary American lives by highly trained spies from the Soviet Union and Russia.

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Tim Foley’s Shocking Revelation (00:00 - 05:19)

The episode opens on June 27, 2010, introducing Tim Foley, a young man from Cambridge, Massachusetts, who experiences a life-altering event on his 20th birthday. While celebrating with his family, Tim and his brother Alex are abruptly confronted by a team of armed FBI agents who arrest their parents under the suspicion of being "unlawful agents of a foreign government" (Lamanna, 00:03:56). This incident leaves the brothers bewildered, as their parents, Donald and Ann Heathfield, appeared to lead typical suburban lives.

Notable Quote:

“They were accused of being foreign spies,” Lamanna states at [00:03:56], highlighting the severe and unexpected nature of the FBI’s intervention.

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Origins of the Sleeper Agents: Yelena and Andrei (05:19 - 15:48)

Lamanna transitions to the backstory of Yelena Vavilova and Andrei Bezrukov, originally from the Soviet Union. In the early 1980s, this young couple, both university students in Tomsk State University, are approached by the KGB and recruited as sleeper agents. Their rigorous training includes mastering new identities, languages, and cultural nuances to seamlessly integrate into Canadian society before eventually embedding themselves in the United States.

Key Points:

• Recruitment: Yelena and Andrei are selected for their intelligence and resilience, traits prized by the KGB for long-term espionage.
• Training: Their transformation involves adopting the identities of deceased Canadian citizens, Tracy Ann Foley and Donald Heathfield, including meticulous attention to detail in personal histories and professional backgrounds.
• Integration: They move to Canada, establish their new lives, and prepare for eventual relocation to the U.S., all while maintaining their cover identities without reverting to their Russian roots.

Notable Quote:

Yelena reflects on her training, “To take on their new identities, they had to kill their old selves” (Lamanna, [05:19:00]).

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Building a Life in America (15:48 - 29:59)

Once in Canada, Yelena and Andrei and their newly constructed identities allow them to start fresh. Yelena becomes a real estate agent, and Andrei pursues a master's degree at Harvard University, strategizing to infiltrate influential American circles. Their focus extends beyond mere assimilation; they aim to gather intelligence by positioning themselves in key sectors and forming connections with powerful individuals.

Key Developments:

• Education and Networking: Andrei’s studies at Harvard serve as a conduit to interact with future leaders and policymakers, enhancing their ability to collect valuable information.
• Family Life: They prioritize building a semblance of normalcy by raising their sons, Tim and Alex, in Cambridge, while carefully balancing their espionage roles.
• FBI Investigation: The episode details how the FBI, through Operation Ghost Stories, meticulously tracked their activities, leading to their eventual arrest.

Notable Quote:

Tim Foley recounts the day of the raid, “What had started out as a happy day for Tim ended with one of the longest and darkest nights of his life” (Lamanna, [00:03:56]).

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Operation Ghost Stories: The Investigation and Arrest (29:59 - 40:37)

The narrative shifts to the extensive FBI and CIA collaboration known as Operation Ghost Stories. This operation focused on dismantling the network of Russian sleeper agents in the U.S., including Yelena and Andrei. The turning point arrives when Alexander Potaev, a former KGB officer turned informant, provides critical information that leads to the identification and arrest of the agents.

Key Elements:

• Surveillance and Evidence: The FBI Special Surveillance Group gathered years of intelligence, meticulously connecting the agents’ activities to their true identities.
• High-Stakes Decision: Amidst diplomatic tensions, CIA Director Leon Panetta negotiates a spy swap with Russia, aiming to minimize international fallout while securing the return of captured American spies.
• Public Exposure: On June 27, the FBI raids Yelena and Andrei’s home, leading to their public identification as Russian spies and their subsequent arrest.

Notable Quote:

Panetta communicates strategically with the SVR director, stating, “We know the spies are yours,” (Lamanna, [29:59]) showcasing the tense negotiations behind the scenes.

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The Spy Swap and Aftermath (40:37 - End)

Following their arrest, Yelena and Andrei participate in a high-profile spy swap orchestrated by the U.S. government. This exchange involves returning the Russian agents to Russia in return for U.S. spies detained by Russia. The episode highlights the personal toll on the Foley family, especially Tim and Alex, who grapple with the revelation that their parents were undercover agents.

Key Outcomes:

• Family Impact: The brothers are sent to Moscow, confronting the truth about their parents’ identities and heritage, leading to emotional reunions and a painful reconciliation with their past.
• Agents’ Lives Post-Exchange: Yelena reintegrates into Russian society, leveraging her experiences to write spy novels, while Andrei secures a position at a prestigious university and serves as an advisor to a Russian oil company.
• Political Repercussions: The arrests and subsequent spy swap strain U.S.-Russia relations, with President Vladimir Putin expressing his displeasure over the exposed espionage activities.

Notable Quote:

Lamanna concludes with a reflection on the broader implications, “While President Obama may have downplayed the arrests of the Russian sleeper agents, they still made Russian President Vladimir Putin livid” (Lamanna, [29:59]).

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Conclusion

"The Russian Sleeper Agent Next Door" serves as a compelling exploration of modern espionage, highlighting the lengths to which nations will go to protect their interests. Through meticulous research and narrative storytelling, Luke Lamanna illuminates the hidden lives of sleeper agents and the profound impact their missions have on themselves and their families. The episode underscores the complex interplay between national security and personal lives, leaving listeners with a deeper understanding of the covert operations that shape global dynamics.

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Additional Information

Research and Production Credits:

• Book Recommendations: Russians Among Sleeper Cells by Gordon Carrera, Ghost Stories by Sean Walker for The Guardian, and articles from The Times and El Pais.
• Production Team: Written by Suzy Armitage, sound designed by Ryan Potesta, produced by Christopher B. Dunn, John Reed, and Luke Lamanna, among others.

Follow and Subscribe: Listeners are encouraged to follow Declassified Mysteries on the Wondery app or their preferred podcast platform to explore more episodes unraveling the secrets of espionage and covert operations.

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This summary encapsulates the key elements and narrative flow of the episode, emphasizing the personal and geopolitical ramifications of sleeper agents within the United States.

Transcript

[Luke Lamanna]

Wondery subscribers can listen to declassified mysteries early and ad free right now. Join Wondery in the Wondery app or on Apple Podcasts. On June 27, 2010, Tim Foley was relaxing in his bedroom in Cambridge, Massachusetts when he heard a knock at the door. It was his 20th birthday and he wasn't expecting company. Earlier that day, Tim had gone out to lunch with his 16 year old brother Alex and their parents to celebrate. When they got home, his parents cracked open a bottle of Champagne. Tim wasn't 21 yet, but his parents were from Canada, where the drinking age was lower, so it seemed fine to them. The champagne made Tim sleepy, so he'd gone upstairs to rest for a while before his evening plans. Now Tim heard his mom yelling that some of his friends must have come by to surprise him. But before Tim could head downstairs to see who was there, he heard the door swing open, followed by a swarm of voices and footsteps. They screamed, FBI. And ordered everyone inside to put their hands up. Tim jumped out of bed. He'd had a party the night before and none of the guests were over 21. He thought he was about to get busted for underage drinking. Sending in the FBI seemed like an extreme response, but the local police had a reputation for being strict about things like that. As Tim peeked down the stairs, he saw half a dozen FBI agents with guns. Some were carrying a battering ram, even though Tim's mom had opened the door willingly. Soon, Tim's brother Alex came out of his room and joined him at the top of the stairs. Alex shot Tim a terrified look, but Tim didn't know what to say. An FBI officer appeared on the landing and led the brothers downstairs. Tim watched in a state of shock as the agent slapped handcuffs on his parents. He searched their faces, which seemed oddly blank as they were led out of the front door. Neighbors were starting to come out of their houses wondering what all the commotion was about. Tim had no idea what was going on. His dad, Donald, was a business consultant and his mom, Ann, was a real estate agent. They lived totally normal lives. They were just an average suburban family. He couldn't imagine why the FBI was dragging them out of their home on a quiet Sunday afternoon. Tim kept asking the FBI agents what was happening. Finally, one agent pulled him aside and gave him a pitying look. He told Tim that his parents were suspected of being, quote, unlawful agents of a foreign government. At first Tim didn't know what this meant, but after a minute he understood. They were accusing his parents of being foreign spies. Tim looked at Alex in disbelief. There was no way it could be true. Sure, their parents were from Canada and their dad traveled a lot for work, but it was a far cry from international espionage. There had to have been some kind of mix up. Maybe the FBI had the wrong house. But the FBI agents weren't acting like they were in the wrong house. They turned the place upside down looking for evidence. An agent offered to take Tim and Alex to a hotel so they wouldn't have to watch and the boys agreed. But when they arrived, the cold, sterile room gave the boys little comfort. They stayed up late talking, trying to make sense of what had just happened. What had started out as a happy day for Tim ended with one of the longest and darkest nights of his life. Later, Tim and Alex would learn that their parents had been lying to them their entire lives. Their parents names weren't Donald and Ann and they weren't from Canada either. They had been born in the Soviet Union as Andrei Bezrokov and Yelena Vavilova. The truth would change Tim and Alex's lives forever and it would become front page news around the world.

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[Luke Lamanna]

From Ballin Studios and Wondery. I'm Luke Lamanna and this is Declassified Mysteries where each week we shine a light on the shadowy corners of espionage, covert operations and misinformation to reveal the dark secrets our governments tried to hide. This week's episode. This episode is called Operation Ghost Stories. Capturing Russia's Sleeper Agents Every country has spies. Some pose as diplomats working under official cover. Some pretend to work for international corporations. Others play a dangerous game as double agents, professing their allegiances to one country while they are actually loyal to another. But in the world of espionage, Russia's sleeper agents are something else altogether, even inspiring their own TV series. The Americans. They're trained to fly under the radar, learning the local language and culture well enough to pass as ordinary citizens. They work ordinary jobs and play the long game, spending decades crafting convincing backstories so they can make important connections and secretly gather information to help their home country. They're the spies next door, and they managed to infiltrate the heart of the United States One evening In the early 1980s, Yelena Vavilova and her boyfriend, Andrei Bezrukov, huddled in a dusty corner of their university library in the Soviet Union. It was just before closing time. Jelena held her breath and crouched down, trying to hide herself behind a bookshelf. She heard the librarian's heels click by as she gave each row a final look and turned off all the lights. Andre squeezed her hand to reassure her. Finally, the footsteps disappeared. Yelena heard the heavy door creak shut and a key grinding in the lock. The young couple sat together in the darkness. They grinned at each other and then burst out laughing. They'd done it. They'd managed to hide away in the library after closing, and now it was all theirs for the whole night. Yelena breathed in the musty smell of the books surrounding them. She and Andrei had bonded over their mutual love of learning. They were both history majors at Tomsk State University in Siberia. Yelena had a knack for languages and had studied German since elementary school. She played the violin and had taken ballet and figure skating lessons. Yelena worked hard to excel in everything she did, and she was on track to live a neat and orderly life. Like her academic parents. Andre was two years older, with dark brown hair and a wide grin that reflected an easy confidence. His parents had traveled a lot for work when he was a kid, and he'd taken care of himself from a young age. It made him independent and self assured, which drew Yelena to him like a magnet. He wasn't afraid of taking risks, and his daring nature was contagious. That's how they'd ended up here in the library after hours. When they spent time together, she realized there was more to life than being perfect. It was important to enjoy it, too. The next morning Jelena and Andrei woke up to angry shouting. They'd fallen asleep among the stacks, and the director of the library had discovered them. They got yelled at, but they didn't face serious consequences. Andre always had a way of slipping out of trouble. It was part of his charm. Yelena was learning. She smiled to herself as she headed home. The excitement of breaking the rules had been worth the risk. Soviet universities were prime spots for the KGB to recruit future spies. They were always on the lookout for bright young people who weren't afraid to take chances, just like Elena and Andrei. Perhaps the library incident had caught their eye. Or maybe the library director had even tipped them off. Whatever it was, a KGB official soon approached Yelena with a question that would upend her life forever. Did she want to serve her motherland? Yelena was just 21 years old. She wondered what her life would look like as a spy, whether it would impact her relationship with her parents. She wouldn't be able to tell them anything about her work. She also wondered if she would be able to visit them if she was sent abroad. And she shuddered at the thought of not being able to see them if they got sick. But she wouldn't be totally alone. Her relationship with Andre was getting serious, and he had been given a similar offer. They could go on this adventure together. She was prepared to commit herself to this job with Andre as her partner. Plus, there was something romantic about joining the kgb. As a kid, she'd been hooked on a popular TV series that portrayed Soviet spies working in Nazi Germany as heroes. She also felt a strong sense of patriotism. Many of her peers were disillusioned with communism. But to Yelena, working for the KGB was a chance to keep her country safe. The Soviet Union had suffered devastating losses during World War II. Some 27 million people had died, and the human cost of defeating Hitler was still fresh in every Soviet citizen's mind. Yelena decided that whatever she could do to prevent more bloodshed would be worth it, even if that meant fighting in the invisible war of espionage. Yelena told the KGB recruiter that she was ready to start training. She and Andre wanted to serve their country, and they were willing to make it their life's mission. On a windy afternoon in the mid-1980s, Yelena shivered as she walked home to her Moscow apartment. She pulled her scarf tighter around her neck. She was exhausted after a day of KGB training, and she couldn't wait to get into a hot bath on this frigid winter day. Yelena had been practicing brush passes in the bustling streets of the capital. This meant that under the watchful eyes of her instructors, she had to secretly pass items to a contact without being noticed. The past couple of years had been a bit of a blur for Yelena. After agreeing to join the kgb, she and Andrei had gotten married in a small ceremony in Tomsk. It was just parents and a few other close guests. There was no time for a honeymoon. Right afterwards, they left town to start their new lives in Moscow, more than 2,000 miles away. Living in the big city was a dream come true for Yelena. Walking past the red square and the onion domes of St. Basil's Cathedral was a thrill. The KGB had provided her and Andre with a comfortable two bedroom apartment. For a young couple from Siberia, training to become a spy was a step up in the world. But it was also physically, mentally and emotionally grueling. The KGB had taught Yelena karate and how to shoot a gun. She'd learned how to send coded messages and how to pass a lie detector test. She knew how to tell when she was being followed and how to lose a tail. But for emotional support, she could only rely on Andre. They weren't allowed to meet any other KGB recruits. Their friends and family didn't know what they were doing. This isolation made their bond even stronger. Jelena and Andre were also busy practicing living their new fake identities. Their plan was to assume the names of two Canadians who had died in Tracy Ann Foley and Donald Heathfield. The KGB had combed cemeteries and obituary pages, searching for deceased babies whose identities they could steal. Then, with the help of former spies and real Westerners who had defected to the Soviet Union, Yelena and Donald began learning the nuances of their new culture. The training covered everything from what forks to use at dinner to how to fill out a job application. They spent hours each day studying French and English. Like actors, they would have to play their parts convincingly to be accepted as Canadians. But unlike actors, they could not go back to their normal lives. At the end of the day, once they left the Soviet Union, they would have to inhabit these new personalities 247 to prepare themselves for the upcoming journey. They decided not to speak Russian together, not even at home. To take on their new identities, they had to kill their old selves. Yelena edited her memories. The snowball fights, summer camps and family picnics of her childhood had taken place in Montreal, not Tomsk. The sun was fading quickly. Yelena opened the heavy door of her apartment building and walked upstairs. She put on a kettle for some tea. Andrei was at the market picking up some things they needed for dinner. No, Yelena reminded herself. Donald was at the market. She had to start thinking of her husband as Donald and herself as Tracy. In 1987, Yelena and Andrei shuffled about their Moscow apartment, packing their bags. As they filled their suitcases, the gravity of their mission finally started to sink in. They could only take clothes that had been bought abroad. Anything with a Soviet label could blow their cover. They turned every pocket inside out, making sure there was nothing incriminating inside. Even loose change or an old bus ticket could expose their true identities. After years of intense training, the KGB had decided they were finally ready to go to Canada. There, they would establish residence. Then they would build up their quote, legend or backstory as Tracy and Donald. Eventually, they would use those credentials to move to the United States. The next day, it was time to say goodbye to their families. They told their parents they were moving to Australia for work. Yelena felt a twinge of guilt for lying to them. Maybe they suspected it wasn't true. But they were Soviet citizens, and they knew not to ask too many questions. Yelena hugged her mom and dad tightly. She wondered if this was the last time she would ever see them. The family dried their tears and sat in silence for a minute, a Russian custom meant to bring good luck on a long journey. But Yelena didn't give up everything. The KGB had taken her and Andrei's love letters and wedding rings in their effort to erase the couple's old life. Her heart ached a little when she handed them over, but at the last minute, Yelena couldn't resist sneaking a few childhood photos into her suitcase. She wanted a keepsake to preserve the person she really was.

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[Luke Lamanna]

Short time later, Yelena held her breath as she stood in line waiting to go through Canadian immigration. She and Andre were traveling separately. To avoid suspicion, they would pretend to meet for the first time in Montreal after they had both established themselves there. Her stomach lurched as she handed her passport to the border guard. Then she remembered what her KGB instructors had told stay calm, act natural, make conversation. She asked the officer how long it took to get to the city from the airport. He answered her in a bored voice and waved her on to fly under the radar. Yelena took a roundabout route to Canada, traveling through several countries and using different documents and aliases to enter each of them. After leaving each airport, she would get rid of the passport that had just been stamped. When she finally arrived in Montreal, she was ready to assume the identity of Tracy Ann Foley, a native born Canadian who had lived in Montreal all her life. When she first heard her new name back in training, Jelena didn't like it. Tracy was hard for her to say. She liked the sound of Anne better, so she decided she would go by her middle name. It was a small way to make this fake identity feel more like her own. One of her first tasks as an illegal spy was to stage a meeting with Andre. Yelena and Andre had been married for a few years, but Ann Foley and Donald Heathfield still had never met. So one sunny morning, Jelena pretended to be a tourist visiting a monument. As she walked down the stairs, Andre asked If he could take her picture. He introduced himself as Donald and she told him her name was Anne. They hit it off. Now they had a How we met story, complete with photo documentation. Before long, Donald popped the question and Ann said yes. In a way, Yelena felt lucky. Not many women get to marry the man they love twice. Repeating once again our top story. In August 1991, Andre and Yelena, who were now living in Toronto. As Donald and Ann sat in their living room, glued to their tv, they couldn't believe what they were seeing. A coup was underway. The Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev had been taken hostage at his summer house. There were tanks in the streets of Moscow, and it seemed the final days of the Soviet Union were quickly approaching. As the nightly news blared, the couple's one year old son, Tim, responded to the chaos by crying. As Yelena tried to calm the baby, she shot Andrei a worried glance. It was clear that their home country was falling apart. But their last few years in Canada had been quiet as they built up their cover. They each got jobs as accountants, Yelena at a factory and Andre at a Honda dealership. It was humbling to start their professional lives from scratch, but they knew it was all in service of an important mission. After carefully weighing the risks, they had made the decision to start a family. They knew it wouldn't be easy to raise a child that couldn't know the truth about who they really were, were they wouldn't be able to speak to their son in Russian or read him Russian fairy tales. Their handlers at the KGB had their doubts about it too. But the couple really wanted to become parents. Jelena had even taken special measures to maintain her cover during her son's birth, like declining anesthesia so she wouldn't accidentally slip into Russian and give herself away. That had happened to the heroine in the Russian spy TV series that she loved. Now, as they watched the coup unfold, Yelena's mind raced. She knew Russia was about to enter a dark and painful period, and she wondered what that meant for their mission. She worried that if the Soviet Union collapsed, she and Andrei would be left on their own without any support from Moscow. Or even worse, maybe the new government would blow their cover. By New Year's Eve, as Yelena feared, the Soviet Union had officially collapsed. But the sleeper agent program, known in Russia as the Illegals Program, would continue under the svr, Russia's successor agency to the kgb. In this chaotic period, it would become even more vital. So even though their home country was now unrecognizable Donald Heathfield and Ann Foley continued their preparations to go to the United States and embed themselves in American society. Despite their fears about the future, Andrei and Yelena were still committed to serving their country. On a muggy morning in June 1999, Alexander Potaev arrived at his office at the Russian mission to the United nations in Manhattan. He took the elevator up to the eighth floor where there were two unmarked doors. He pulled a small piece of metal out of his pocket and touched it to a screw on one of the doors, causing a brief electric jolt. The door slid open and he walked in. Behind the first door, there was another steel door that could only be opened with a code. Alexander was a high ranking diplomat who had been at the UN since 1995. But he was also a spy who had graduated from the KGB's elite paramilitary training course. While Andre and Yelena were building their fake identities in Canada, Alexander was working under diplomatic cover, secretly supporting the activities of Russian sleeper agents on American soil. The FBI had been watching Alexander come in and out of the drab Russian mission building since he had arrived in the United States. They hoped to recruit him as an inside source to help the Americans. They needed someone like him if they were ever going to catch the Russian sleeper agents. They had approached him several times, but Alexander had always turned them down. But things were different now. His time in New York was almost up and he didn't want to go back to Russia. He'd gotten used to life in the US and come to appreciate its comforts. Meanwhile, things were chaotic back home. Soviet communism was dead and crime was rampant. The value of the ruble was in the toilet and some cash strapped schools were paying their teachers in bottles of vodka. Certain former spies had even taken up farming to make ends meet. Worse for Alexander anyway. His pension had been cut and he was worried about money. Alexander sat down at his desk and weighed his options. When he was sworn into the KGB as a young officer, he never imagined turning on his country to work for the enemy. But the Cold War was over now and he had to look out for himself. He took a deep breath, knowing his life was about to change. He was about to contact the FBI and tell them he was ready to cooperate. In May of 2000, Andre walked across the stage at Harvard University in a cap and gown to collect his diploma from the Kennedy School of Government. He spotted his wife Yelena and his sons Tim and Alex in the crowd, beaming proudly. They cheered as the announcer read the name. Donald Howard Heathfield. By now, after more than a decade undercover the name felt just as real as his own. He shook hands with a university official and flashed a grin for the camera. The Heathfield Foleys had arrived in the US almost a year earlier, in August 1999, using their Canadian passports. Now they lived in Cambridge, near Boston. They were the picture of a happy family. Tim was 10 and Alex was 6. The two brothers looked strikingly similar, though Tim was blonde like his mother, and Alex had dark hair like his father. They sent the boys to a bilingual French English school so they could keep in touch with their French Canadian roots. Yelena, AKA Anne, had embraced her role as a suburban soccer mom, driving them to practices and games. In their time abroad, Andrei and Yelena had not spoken a word of Russian to each other. Their task was not just to fit in, but to infiltrate key circles of power. Andre's program at Harvard, a master's in public administration, was the perfect vehicle. It gave him access to Americans in high places, including current and former diplomats and members of Congress. Many of his classmates were rising stars. One was Felipe Calderon, who would later become the president of Mexico. Andrei mastered the art of networking, building a Rolodex of contacts that he hoped could eventually be helpful to Moscow. After the ceremony, Andrei hugged his wife and posed for pictures on the leafy Harvard campus. He couldn't believe the life they'd built. Everything was going according to plan. Soon they would be doing more than just rubbing shoulders with these powerful people. They would be gathering classified intelligence from him. Yelena was home with the boys now, but she planned to become a high end real estate agent when they got older, which would put the couple in contact with even more potential sources. But as the cameras flashed, Andrei and Yelena had no idea that in the crowd of friends, family and happy graduates, there were also members of the FBI's Special Surveillance Group. And they were watching closely. About eight months after the Harvard graduation in late January 2001, FBI agents in Cambridge were rifling through a safe deposit box that belonged to Donald Heathfield and Tracy Foley. They were following up on a tip from a source who suggested that Donald was not a Harvard graduate from Montreal, but a Russian agent operating on American soil. The source was Alexander Potaev. Recruiting him had been a game changer in America's hunt for Russian sleeper agents. He'd become even more valuable when the Russians promoted him to deputy head of the team that oversaw the illegals program in the U.S. he was one of only three officers who had access to all the case files of these secret spies, and he passed their names to the FBI. They in turn used that information in their investigation into the sleeper agents, which they would call Operation Ghost Stories. Inside the safe deposit box, the FBI found Donald's Canadian birth certificate. One of the FBI agents snapped a photo of it and placed it back in the box. Later, they would link it to a Canadian obituary for the deceased child he was impersonating. Then a handful of photos in the box caught one of the agents attention. They showed a girl who was probably in her early 20s, with a short brown bob, a round face, and a button nose. She looked a lot like young Tracey Ann Foley. When they looked more closely at the images, they spotted something even more suspicious. The name of the film company was printed on the negatives. It was tacma, a Soviet firm. It was now clear that Donald's wife had not grown up in Canada, but in Russia. And now the FBI had proof.

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[Luke Lamanna]

Nine years later, on June 18, 2010, CIA Director Leon Panetta took his seat in the Situation Room at the White House for a meeting with America's top national security officials. President Barack Obama sat at the head of the table. He was in his second year as president and had made strengthening relations with Russia a centerpiece of his foreign policy. The mood in the room was tense. The FBI Special Surveillance Group had been following Russian sleeper agents for a decade, biding their time. But the agents were getting close to high powered targets. One of them had met several times with Alan Patrikov, a friend of Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and a fundraiser for the Democratic National Committee. The FBI feared the Russians could use him to reach Clinton. The FBI had also received information that Andrei, AKA Donald Heathfield, and his sons would be traveling to Russia at the end of the month. They didn't want him to slip out of the country and never return, so they had to intervene. And they were ready now. Through Operation Ghost Stories, the FBI and the CIA had years of evidence against Andrew, Yelena and other sleeper agents. And they wanted to make a few splashy public arrests to show the Russians they were in control. But in the Situation Room, President Obama expressed concern about acting too aggressively. He felt that arresting the agents would put an unnecessary strain on U.S. russian relations. The Cold War was over and it was time to move on. Plus, the President of Russia was about to visit the White House. Obama asked whether the US could just quietly deport the sleeper agents or maybe even do nothing and let the whole thing blow over. Panetta disagreed. He said the US could not simply allow the agents to go free, not when they had so much evidence against them. But he offered something of a compromise. They could wait until after the Russian President's visit, and eventually it was decided. That's how a team of FBI agents with a battering ram ended up at Andre and Yelena's Cambridge home on June 27. They also arrested eight other agents that same day. After decades pretending to be average Americans, Andre and Yelena's mugshots were now splashed all over the news. They were locked up in FBI custody. And Panetta was ready for the next stage of his plan. He wanted to broker a spy swap. But first he needed Russia's bias. In two days after the arrests, Panetta called the head of the Russian spy agency, the svr, on speakerphone. His CIA colleagues huddled by the desk, silently listening in. Panetta cut to the chase. He told the SVR director, we know the spies are yours. There was a long silence. The voice on the other end finally responded. Yes, they are my people. Everyone around Panetta started silently cheering. They hadn't expected the Russians to admit their sleeper agents had been exposed. Panetta started to outline his plan for a trade. It was an unprecedented request. The US wanted to swap Russians for other Russians. Russia would get its illegal spies back, and the US Would get Russians who had been detained for spying for the Americans and their allies. The SVR director saw them as traitors. He didn't think they deserved to be free. But he begrudgingly accepted the deal. It would be the biggest US Russia spy swap since the Cold War. After the FBI raided their house and arrested their parents, Tim and Alex Foley felt completely lost. They had been kept in the hotel room and left alone with the realization that they had been lied to their entire lives. Tim felt strange seeing his parents faces all over the news. It gave him no comfort that they weren't the only Russians accused of spying. Tim wondered if any of the others had families and if their kids were as shocked to learn about their parents as he and Alex had been. Meanwhile, the phone in their hotel was ringing off the hook with calls from reporters. They were allowed to briefly meet with their parents, and Yelena told the boys it would be good for them to leave town if they could. So that's what they did. A few days after the raid, on July 5, 2010, Tim and his brother Alex boarded a flight to Moscow, using tickets their parents had booked months before. The family loved to travel, and the boys had been all over the world. And in fact, going to Russia was their idea. They'd always wanted to go, and they'd been asking their parents to take them. But knowing what Tim knew now, he wondered if they'd only agreed because it could be a discreet way to show Tim and Alex their Russian culture, or whether they planned to let them in on their secret once they were there. Whatever the plan was, things were different now. He and Alex weren't going on a sightseeing vacation. They were visiting their parents homeland. On the plane, the boys tried to distract themselves by watching movies, but it was hard to think about anything other than how drastically their lives had changed. They overheard other passengers speaking Russian and thought about how their parents would sound in their native tongue when they finally touched down in Moscow. Tim led his brother to a taxi line so they could head to their hotel. But as they walked over, they were approached by a group of Russians. They spoke English and said they worked with their parents. They asked Tim and Alex to come with them. Tim wondered if he should trust them, but at this point, he felt like they had nothing to lose. So he and Alex agreed. They were taken to an apartment and showed photos of their parents in KGB uniforms. Finally, Tim felt like someone was telling him the truth. After their arrest, Andrei and Yelena maintained their innocence. But these pictures showed otherwise. Tim and Alex had actually been raised by Russian spies. Not long after, the boys were brought to see an older Russian woman who offered them cups of tea and a plate of sweets. Tim looked at her face and recognized his father's features as well as his own. He realized that she must be their grandmother. She could not speak to them in English, and they could not speak to her in Russian. So Tim sipped his tea and unwrapped another piece of candy as her foreign words washed over him, wondering what it all meant. While Tim and Alex were on their own in Moscow, Andre and Yelena appeared in New York Federal Court with the rest of the sleeper agents. At their first hearing, they'd claimed to be innocent. But now their plan was to plead guilty before flying home to Moscow in the spy swap. Under the terms of the deal, they had to acknowledge they were Russian spies. Andrei stared at the other spies in the courtroom. He'd always known there were others out there, but he never met them. They had seemed like ghosts to him. Now they were here in the flesh. And they were all suffering the same consequences for the choices they had made. The spies were forced to hand over all their property and promised not to return to the US without explicit permission from the Attorney General, which was unlikely to ever happen. Reporters and TV crews stretched all the way down the block from Manhattan's downtown federal court, hoping to catch a glimpse of the sleeper spies. As Andre watched the first defendant stand up to plead guilty, he felt a wave of recognition. This man, like him, was an actor. And his long performance was finally coming to an end. In a way other than Yelena, these strangers knew him better than nearly anyone else. The judge asked the spy to state his name. Which name? The man asked. Andre smiled. After two decades living as Donald Heathfield, it was a dilemma he could relate to. The very next day, Andrei, Yelena and the eight other illegals landed in Russia. They were welcomed as heroes. The situation couldn't have been more different for the spies. They'd been traded for the four Russian nationals who had helped the U.S. russia had held them in terrible conditions. And just before sending them to America, the Russian authorities had given them one last beating. After their jet landed in Moscow, Andrei and Yelena got to see their sons again. The couple knew they had a lot of explaining to do. It would take many long conversations about their lives and their reasons for going undercover. But in time, Tim and Alex would eventually come to accept their parents choice. Once they were back in their native country, Andre secured a job at a prestigious university and now serves as an advisor to a Russian oil company. Yelena has written three spy novels based on her work as a sleeper agent. In 2019, Tim and Alex won their battle to have their Canadian citizenship restored. It had been stripped following their parents arrests. Within the FBI, there were still mixed feelings. After their investigation concluded, many officials wanted the spies to be put in jail. Instead, the White House instructed them to play down the events and write a short press release about the spy swap. Others thought the administration was trying to minimize the reach of the Russian spies. We will likely never know what information spies like Andrei and Yelena were able to gather and what they might have done with it. While President Obama may have downplayed the arrests of the Russian sleeper agents, they still made Russian President Vladimir Putin livid. As a former KGB officer, he was not going to forgive and forget. It was a humiliating blow to Russia and tarnished the reputation of the SVR. In the end, the US government only ever caught 10 Soviet sleeper spies, but there were likely more possibly living right next door to you. Follow Declassified Mysteries, hosted by me, Luke lamanna on the Wondery app or wherever you get your podcasts. If you're looking to dive into more gripping stories from Ballin Studios and Wondery, you can also listen to my other podcast Wartime Stories early and ad free with Wondery. Plus start your free trial in the Wondery app, Apple Podcasts or Spotify today. Before you go, tell us about yourself by completing a short [e-mail] survey.

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From.

[Luke Lamanna]

Ballin Studios and Wondery. This is Declassified Mysteries, hosted by me, Luke LaManna. A quick note about our stories we do a lot of research, but some details and scenes are dramatized. We used many different sources for our show, but we especially recommend Russians Among Sleeper Cells, Ghost Stories and the Hunt for Putin's Spies by Gordon Carrera and the article the Day We Discovered Our Parents Were Russian Spies by Sean Walker for the Guardian and articles by the Times and El Pais. This episode this episode was written by Suzy Armitage. Sound designed by Ryan Potesta. Our producers are Christopher B. Dunn and John Reed. Our associate producers are Ines Renike and Molly Quinlan Artwick Fact checking by Sheila Patterson for Ballin Studios. Our head of production is Zach Levitt. Script editing by Scott Allen. Our coordinating producer is Samantha Collins. Production support by Avery Siegel. Producer produced by me, Luke Lamanna. Executive producers are Mr. Ballin and Nick Witters. For Wondery, our senior producers are Loredana Palavotta, Dave Schilling and Rachel Engelman. Senior managing producer is Nick Ryan. Managing producer is Olivia Fonte. Executive producers are Aaron O'Flaherty and Marshall Louie. For Wondery.

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Everyone has that friend who seems kind of perfect for Patty. That friend was Desiree. Until one day I texted her and.

[Luke Lamanna]

She was not getting the text. So I went to Instagram.

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[Luke Lamanna]

And Facebook.

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[Luke Lamanna]

The family are freaking out.

[Steve Buscemi]

They are lost.

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