MIAMI • A Mexican has been arrested in the US city of Miami for spying on "a US government source" on behalf of Russia, the Department of Justice (DOJ) alleged on Tuesday.
Hector Alejandro Cabrera Fuentes, a Mexican citizen who lives in Singapore, is accused of conspiracy and "acting within the United States on behalf of a foreign government".
US intelligence has identified Russia as a central spying threat to the country, and special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation last year found Moscow interfered in the 2016 US presidential election - a finding that President Donald Trump has repeatedly dismissed.
According to court documents cited in a DOJ release, a Russian government official recruited Fuentes last year and told him to rent a specific property in Miami-Dade County and not to use his own name.
Fuentes was said to have travelled to Russia, where he told the government official about the arrangements.
On a subsequent trip this month, the Russian official "provided Fuentes with a physical description of a US government source's vehicle and told Fuentes to locate the car, obtain the source's vehicle licence plate number and note the physical location of the source's vehicle", the DOJ alleged.
Last week, Fuentes travelled to Miami from Mexico City and drove to the residence of his target, where a security guard stopped him, but his companion managed to photograph the target's licence plate, the court documents said.
When the pair tried to leave Miami for Mexico City on Sunday, US Customs and Border Protection allegedly found those images in their phones.
National Heart Centre Singapore (NHCS) yesterday confirmed that Fuentes is a senior research fellow at the centre, and holds a joint appointment in the Cardiovascular and Metabolic Disorders Programme at Duke-NUS Medical School.
"He has been suspended pending investigation in the US," said Professor Terrance Chua, NHCS' medical director. "As the matter is pending investigation in the US, we are unable to comment further."
AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
• Additional reporting by Salma Khalik
