Aldrich Ames, a former CIA agent who was sentenced to life in prison for selling US secrets to Moscow, which led to the deaths of dozens of double agents, has died at the age of 84 while in custody, US authorities have confirmed.
Sources from the Bureau of Prisons specified that Ames died in a prison in the state of Maryland, adding that an autopsy will determine the cause of death, with no further details available at this time, according to the US news website Politico.
Ames, who joined the CIA as a document analyst, specialized in operations against the Soviet Union before being arrested in 1994 and sentenced to life imprisonment along with his wife, Rosario, for carrying out espionage activities on behalf of the Soviet Union, and later Russia, since 1985.
The man, who spoke Russian and specialized in Soviet intelligence services, including the KGB, allegedly began collaborating with Moscow in April 1985 while working in the Soviet and Eastern Europe Division at CIA headquarters in Langley, after which he received $50,000 (approximately €42,800) in exchange.
The FBI maintains that Ames met with a Soviet diplomat that summer and passed on classified information about CIA and FBI personnel. He continued these activities after being transferred to Rome in July 1986 and to Washington in 1989, a period during which suspicions arose due to the arrest and execution of double agents in the Soviet Union. The situation led U.S. authorities to open an investigation that also focused on Ames’s increasing wealth. He received $2.5 million (approximately €2.14 million) for his efforts, an operation that ultimately resulted in his arrest in February 1984 outside his home.
Finally, both Ames and his wife pleaded guilty to espionage charges in April 1994, and he was sentenced to life imprisonment without the possibility of parole. Rosario Ames was sentenced to 63 months in prison and was released after serving her sentence.
