Hector Alejandro Cabrera Fuentes was charged with acting within the United States on behalf of a foreign government (Russia), without notifying the Attorney General, and conspiracy to do the same

Federal authorities have detained a Mexican doctor who was allegedly recruited by Russia to spy on a U.S. government officials in Florida.

A release from the Department of Justice's Office of Public Affairs states that Hector Alejandro Cabrera Fuentes was charged with acting within the United States on behalf of a foreign government (Russia), without notifying the Attorney General, and conspiracy to do the same.

Court documents share that Fuentes was recruited by an unnamed Russian government officials in 2019 and instructed to rent a specific property in Miami-Dade County, Florida.

Fuentes was told not to rent the apartment in his name and was also instructed not to tell his family of his meetings with the Russian official.

The Mexican citizen is said to have traveled to Russia to tell the official of the arrangements that were made, only to be told that he would meet again with the official when he made his return trip to the country.

Fuentes was recruited by an unnamed Russian government officials in 2019 and instructed to rent a specific property in Miami-Dade County, Florida

Fuentes would make his return trip to the country in February 2020, meeting with the official in Moscow. During the meeting, the official provided Fuentes with a physical description of a U.S. Government source's vehicle.

He was told to locate the vehicle and obtain its license plate number, while also noting where it was located. Fuentes was then told to meet the Russian official in April or May 2020.

Court documents also reveal that Fuentes traveled to Miami on February 13, from Mexico City. The next day, a rental car driven by Fuentes caught the attention of security where a U.S. government source resided.

The doctor made routine trips to Russia to meet with the official and get his next assignments

The security personnel noted that Fuentes' car had been tailing another vehicle to gain access to the premises. As the guard questioned Fuentes, a woman - who is legally married to Fuentes in Mexico - walked away from the car to go take pictures of the government source's license plate.

When asked why they were on the premises, Fuentes gave security a misleading name which prompted the individual to ask the pair to leave the area.

Fuentes and his travel companion arrived at the Miami International Airport on February 16, in hopes on making a flight back to Mexico City.

Fuentes' pretrial detention hearing is scheduled for February 21 at 10am while his arraignment is scheduled for March 3 at 10pm

U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents inspected the phone that the travel companion had and discovered the photo in the 'recently deleted folder' on her phone.

Fuentes would eventually admit to tasking the woman with snapping the image. Authorities soon found a copy of the image in a WhatsApp exchange between Fuentes and the woman.

It was then that Fuentes then admitted to law enforcement that he was ordered by the Russian government official to carry out the operation.

Messages on Fuentes' phone revealed that the Russian official initiated and directed meetings.

Fuentes' pretrial detention hearing is scheduled for February 21 at 10am while his arraignment is scheduled for March 3 at 10pm.

According to website ESC 365 , Fuentes is a Mexican doctor who graduated with a master's degree in molecular biology from Kazan Federal University located in Kazan, Russia

According to website ESC 365, Fuentes is a Mexican doctor who graduated with a master's degree in molecular biology from Kazan Federal University located in Kazan, Russia.

Fuentes then obtained a PhD in 20212 at the Institute of Biomedical Sciences, Kazan Federal University before getting another at the Department of Biochemistry, Medical School, Justus-Liebig University Giessen in 2014.

As of August 2018, Fuentes was the head of the FEMSA Biotechnology Crentr of Tex de Monterrey, mexico.

He was tapped to be an assistant professor at SingHealth Duke-NUS in Singapore in October 2019.