Hector Alejandro Cabrera Fuentes Pleads Guilty to Acting on Behalf of Russian Government in Miami

A Mexican national, Hector Alejandro Cabrera Fuentes, 36, has pleaded guilty to acting within the United States on behalf of a foreign government without notifying the Attorney General.

According to court documents, Fuentes acted under the direction and control of an individual he believed to be a Russian government official. Instructed by this Russian official, Fuentes, who has spent significant time in Russia, arranged for an intermediary to lease a unit in a specific residential building in Miami-Dade County, Florida, where a specified U.S. person, who had previously provided information about the Russian government to the U.S. government, resided.

Fuentes’s travel companion, at his request, took a photo of the specified U.S. person’s car. A WhatsApp message from Fuentes’s travel companion to Fuentes contained a close-up photograph of the specified U.S. person’s car. The manner in which Fuentes communicated with the Russian government official and his undertakings in this case are consistent with the tactics of the Russian intelligence services for spotting, assessing, recruiting and handling intelligence assets and sources.

Fuentes had not notified the U.S. Attorney General, as required by law, that he was acting in the United States as an agent of the Russian government.

Hector Alejandro Cabrera Fuentes is scheduled to be sentenced on May 17, 2024 in Miami and faces a maximum statutory penalty of 10 years in prison. A federal district court judge will determine any sentence after considering the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors.

The case is being investigated by the FBI and CBP, and Assistant U.S. Attorney Michael Thakur for the Southern District of Florida and Trial Attorney Matthew J. McKenzie of the National Security Division’s Counterintelligence and Export Control Section are prosecuting the case.

Fuentes’s actions demonstrate a blatant disregard for U.S. law and an attempt to undermine national security. The sentence for his crimes will be a warning to others who seek to act on behalf of foreign governments without our knowledge or consent.

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