The legendary American spy freed as Cuba - US relations have thawed
By RYAN GORMAN
The legendary U.S. spy jailed for two decades in Cuba who was released Wednesday into American custody has been identified.
Rolando "Roly" Sarraff Trujillo secretly worked as a CIA informant while with the Cuban Ministry of the Interior, Chris Simmons, a former government official told Newsweek. He was arrested in 1995 and originally sentenced to 25 years in prison.
The above pictures of the recently-freed man come from a blog set up by his family to advocate for his release. Libertad de Rolando Sarraff even shows letters sent home from behind bars.
The man's family now celebrating his freedom.
Roly was "an expert on cryptography," according to Simmons. He provided information that led to the arrest of the "Cuban Five," who were arrested in 1998 in Florida on espionage charges.
"I know of all the Cubans on the list of people in jail and he is the only one who fits the description" of the unnamed asset in question, Simmons added. "I am 99.9 percent sure that Roly is the guy."
Neither the U.S. government nor Raul Castro has named Roly as the spy, but the Cuban President did say a man of "Cuban origin" was being sent to the U.S. along with American Alan Gross.
A U.S. official did tell Newsweek that the spy was "instrumental in the identification and disruption of several Cuban intelligence operatives in the United States and ultimately led to a series of successful federal espionage prosecutions."
The intelligence asset also "provided the information that led to the identification and conviction of Defense Intelligence Agency senior analyst Ana Belen Montes; former Department of State official Walter Kendall Myers and his spouse Gwendolyn Myers; and members of the Red Avispa network, or 'Wasp Network,' in Florida, which included members of the so-called Cuban Five," said the U.S. official.
It was also reported Wednesday by El Nuevo Herald, the Miami Herald's Spanish newspaper, that Roly was the man being returned with Gross.
Simmons, who was a Cuba expert with the Defense Intelligence Agency, claims it can only be Sarraf Trujillo -- "just as a matter of elimination."
Roly was caught passing information to the U.S. only days before he planned to defect to the U.S., according to Simmons, and barely escaped with his life.
"The only thing that saved him from execution was the fact that both his parents were retired senior intelligence officers," Said Simmons.
The "Cuban Five" were indicted on 25 separate espionage charges. Three of them returned home to Cuba as part of the deal that freed him and Gross.
Sarraff Trujillo landed Wednesday in Florida on the same flight that brought Alan Gross home.
Both are free as part of the deal that saw U.S. President Barack Obama and Castro announce a normalization of relations between the countries.
Related links:
Obama: US will ease Cuban embargo, open embassy in Havana
Sen. Rand Paul says trade with Cuba 'probably a good idea'
