15 Years Ago: Spy Robert Hanssen Arrested in Vienna

PHOTO: Robert Philip Hanssen; Foxstone Park; photos courtesy of FBI

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VIENNA, VA -- Fifteen years ago on Feb. 18, longtime FBI special agent and Vienna area family man Robert Hanssen was arrested for being a spy for the Russians.

Hanssen, 56, was arrested that day, a Sunday, at Foxstone Park, about a mile from his family’s home while placing a package of classified information at a prearranged or “dead drop” site for pickup by his Russian handlers, the FBI said. He eventually pleaded guilty to 15 counts of espionage and conspiracy for passing top-secret information to the Soviet Union and Russia for over 20 years.

In the years he spied for the Russians, Hanssen received hundreds of thousands of dollars in cash, diamonds and two Rolex watches, according to a report by the FBI.

Hanssen, who friends called “Bob,” went under several aliases when dealing with his Russian handlers, according to the FBI. Those aliases included “B, “Ramon Garcia,” “Jim Baker” and “G. Robertson.”

The longtime FBI agent and his Russian handlers made contact at the “dead drop” sites, local parks mentioned in the investigation of his spying activities. The parks included:

• Nottoway Park (the FBI notes the park was about a 5-minute walk from Hanssen’s home on Whitecedar Court, where he and his family lived before moving to New York and then back to Vienna, to a home on Talisman Drive)
• Ellanor C. Lawrence Park
• Idylwood Park
• Eakin Community Park
• Canterbury Park
• Foxstone Park
• Lewinsville Park
• Rock Creek Park
• Roundtree Park

Legal experts at the time said Hanssen possibly avoided the death penalty by striking a plea deal. Attorneys for Hanssen negotiated before agreeing to a deal that allowed him to reveal secrets he sold to Moscow, in exchange for the Justice Department agreeing to a life term, ABC News reported.

Today, Hanssen is 71 years old and serving 15 life terms at the United States Penitentiary Administrative Maximum Facility in Florence, Colo., the “Alcatraz of the Rockies,” is how the New York Times described the prison in an article about it last year.

The case spawned more than half a dozen books as well as at least two films, “Breach” and “Master Spy: The Robert Hanssen Story.”