17. The Perfect Wife For a Traitor
It was in Mexico that Aldrich Ames met his second wife, Maria del Rosario Casas Dupuy, a Colombian embassy cultural attaché and CIA informant. They wed in 1985, and that same year, the couple began selling secrets to the KGB. During their run of treason, which lasted until they were finally unmasked in 1994, Ames and his wife were paid over $2.7 million by the Soviets, and after 1991, the Russians.
There were warning signs, including conspicuous consumption and extravagant spending. The couple bought a big $520,000 house paid for in cash, went on luxury vacations, had premium credit cards whose minimum monthly payment exceeded his salary, and luxury cars that stood out in the CIA’s parking lot. The kinds of things no honest public servant could afford on government pay. However, no alarm bells were raised for years, and when they were, it took years more, until 1993, before Ames’ bosses took a serious look at his finances and activities.
