Cuban spymaster exposed by the Atencion numbers station
4 referenced events from the UVB-76 - The Buzzer archive.
Cuban intelligence officer Gerardo Hernandez, spymaster of the Miami-based Wasp Network, is arrested by the FBI. The prosecution's evidence includes decoded Atencion numbers-station messages, the clearest public demonstration of a numbers station in operation.
A Miami jury convicts five Cuban intelligence agents, including spymaster Gerardo Hernandez. The trial enters into the public record exactly how a numbers station works in practice: a voice reads groups, an agent types them into a laptop, and one-time-pad software turns them into orders.
Hernandez is convicted, including on a murder-conspiracy count tied to the 1996 shoot-down of two exile aircraft, and sentenced to two life terms. He is freed in the 2014 US-Cuba prisoner exchange.
As Washington and Havana move to restore relations, Gerardo Hernandez and the remaining Cuban Five are released and flown home. In Cuba they are hailed as heroes, a reminder that the numbers station his network relied on was a real instrument of a real state.