Robert Hanssen found dead in his supermax prison cell at age 79: Veteran FBI agent convicted of giving nuclear secrets to Russians received 20 years in prison and 15 consecutive life sentences
- Robert Hanssen, 79, was found dead in his supermax federal prison cell at the ADX in Florence, Colorado
- A cause of death has not yet been released, but authorities say there is no danger to the public
- Hanssen pleaded guilty to selling top secret materials to the Soviet Union and later to Russia and was sentenced to 15 consecutive life terms
A former FBI agent serving a life sentence for espionage has died aged 79.
The agency confirmed on Monday that Robert Hanssen became unresponsive around 6:55 a.m. in his supermax federal prison cell at the ADX in Florence, Colorado.
Responding crew members took lifesaving measures, the agency said in a statement, but Hanssen was eventually pronounced dead by outside medical personnel.
A cause of death has not yet been released, but authorities say there is no danger to the public.
Hannsen became notorious in the United States when he was arrested in 2001 and pleaded guilty to selling top secret material to the Soviet Union and later Russia.
He was only 20 years into his 15 consecutive life sentences for espionage, conspiracy to commit espionage, and attempted espionage at the time of his death.
Robert Hanssen served 15 consecutive life sentences in federal prison after pleading guilty to espionage charges
FBI agents arrest Hanssen near his home in Virginia in February 2001
Hanssen began his operation just three years after being hired by the FBI, when he personally approached the Soviets.
He began spying for the KGB in 1979 and continued to do so for its successor, the SVR, until he was finally confronted by his wife.
But in 1985, Hanssen continued his operation, selling thousands of classified documents related to human sources, counterintelligence techniques and investigations in exchange for more than $1.4 million in cash, diamonds and foreign bank deposits.
He never personally met a Russian handler, instead using the alias ‘Ramon Garcia’ to relay encrypted communications and perform dead drops.
Some of the information he was able to relay included details of US nuclear war preparations and a secret eavesdropping tunnel under the Soviet embassy in Washington DC.
Hanssen’s identity was finally revealed when a Russian intelligence officer presented the FBI with a file containing a garbage bag containing his fingerprints and a tape recording of his voice.
Officers then pursued the defector and he was arrested making a dead end in a Virginia park.