PROBE GIANT SOVIET SPY RING

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP75-00149R000700030001-4
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 16, 2016
• Document Release Date: December 6, 2004
• Sequence Number: 1
• Publication Date: March 23, 1967
• Content Type: NSPR

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Ze ase Halarl Na cs 300
ROME, March 23 (UP W -
Italian security agents today.
began checking 300 persons
including Americans named by
accused spy Giorgio (the flying
madman) Rinaldi as part of a
fantastic Soviet spy network
stretching from Somaliland to
Scandinavia.
Rinaldi, a parachute
champion and James Bond fan
who police said confessed to
running the ring along with his
chubby wife, supplied the names
under questioning at Turin
yesterday, counter-intelligence
sources said.
Rinaldi's. 300 names might
include actual spies, persons the
Soviets listed - as possible
.espionage recruits or persons
who might be cultivated for
data on 'North Atlantic Treaty
.Organization bases in Europe,
Africa and the Middle East,
they said.
The sources said it appeared
hafil ng one spy could know so
many names. "But the whole
orarization of this ring was so"
uncommon that anything is
possible," one security official
said.
They said details of Rinaldi's
ring matched the cloak and
dagger impact of the jai es
Bond mysteries found in the
accused spy's home.
As Rinaldi talked, Soviet
Embassy diplomat Yuri
Pavlenko, expelled for his, part
in the network, left Rome with
his wife and six-year-old son on
a Czech airliner. Italian sources
said agents caught the
Pavlenkos collecting microfilm
Rinaldi had cached near Rome.
They said Rinaldi, using his
reputation as a parachutist and
his teaching career as a' cover,
spied on four American bases in
Spain including the nuclear-
powered submaiiine installation
at Rota, near Cadiz.
Expelled Soviet diplomat Jurl Pavlenco, 35, li Rome's Fiumicino Airport
is wife, Natalia, and son, Alexander, 6, leave spy ring was uncovered.
52-year-old former Mussolini-era.
woman soldier, and their ? 1
alleged courner-chauffeur, Ar-
mando Girard, 40, faced prison
terms of 15. years if convicted
of espionage and' life terms if
sentenced for stealing "state
secrets." I
Intelligence sources said
Rinaldi began working for the
Soviets after falling heavily into
.debt, They said he identified his.
first spy contact . as Alexci
Solovov; a Soviet, embassy
official expelled frot: Italy in
1958. They said Rinaldi told of
leaving data in a Rome church
for Solovov to pick up.
Later . he . begad leaving
the suburbs and, sonletim'Cs, ill
Arai a a a Fs'*??g:?vI
-UPI Photos
for Moscow after tha
Girard led to the seizure of the GIORGIO RINALDI ANGELA RINALDI
Rinaldis, police said.
According to reliable sources, si= a full report of 'American supplied by., Rinaldi, and given
Italian officials have given the involvement in the Rinaldi ring. to the CIA, appeared to be code
Approved For Release 2004/12/15 : CIA-RDP75-001.49R000700030001-4 ',