Ex-FBI agent Robert Hanssen was found dead in his prison cell on Monday morning (Pictures: Getty/Reuters)
A former FBI agent who was convicted of spying on the US for Russia has been discovered dead in his prison cell.
Robert Hanssen, 79, was found unresponsive on Monday morning, according to the Bureau of Prisons.
‘Staff requested emergency medical services and life-saving efforts continued,’ stated Bureau of Prisons Director of Communications Kristie Breshears, according to CBS News.
‘The inmate was subsequently pronounced dead by outside emergency medical personnel.’
Former FBI agent Robert Hanssen was arrested in 2001 (Picture: Reuters)
Hanssen was serving a life sentence at at a federal penitentiary in Florence, Colorado. He was among spies who inflicted the most damage ever to the US.
The Soviets approached Hanssen three years after he started working for the FBI. He began spying for the KGB, the former Soviet secret police, in 1979, as well as the successor SVR.
Hanssen’s employment with the FBI allowed him to access virtually any classified documents. He assumed the alias Ramon Garcia in sending US intelligence to spy agencies via dead drops and encrypted messages.
He stepped back from spying several years after starting, when his wife confronted him, but picked it back up in 1985.
In exchange for feeding US intelligence, Hanssen received more than $1.4million in foreign bank deposits, cash and diamonds.
Hanssen was arrested in 2001.
He pleaded guilty to selling highly classified documents to the Soviet Union and Russia.
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Former FBI agent Robert Hanssen was one of the most damaging spies in US history.