By Jeff Shields and Susan Clary
Sentinel Staff Writers

Federal authorities arrested an Orlando husband and wife Friday and charged them as part of the same Cuban spy network that sought to infiltrate Cuban-American
exile organizations and the United States military command for the Americas.

George Gari, 41, who until recently worked for national-defense contractor Lockheed-Martin in the Orlando area, and Marisol Gari, 42, who once worked for the
U.S. Postal Service in Miami, were arrested Friday after being called to the FBI offices in Orlando. The FBI said the Garis are agents who went by the code names
Luis and Margot and worked in conjunction with the five spies of Cuba's "Wasp Network," who were convicted of espionage conspiracy in June.

"We said there were going to be more arrests to come, and we meant it," said Hector Pesquera, special agent in charge of the FBI's operations in South Florida, at a
news conference at FBI headquarters in North Miami Beach.

The Garis are accused of trying to penetrate the United States Southern Command in Miami-Dade by placing an agent in a job there, spying on the Cuban-American
National Foundation and one of its leaders and providing intelligence information to officers who reported directly to the Cuban military in Havana.

U.S. Attorney Guy Lewis predicted more arrests to come.

According to documents the FBI said it procured from the homes of admitted spies, Luis and Margot were in charge of operations to gather intelligence information
on Roberto Martín Pérez, a former director of the Cuban American National Foundation. The FBI also said they were part of a mission to place people in the United
States Southern Command headquarters in Miami-Dade.

George Gari worked for five years for RC Aluminum Industries in Miami, according to FBI spokeswoman Judy Orihuela.

Marisol Gari, who was a seasonal worker at the Miami Post Office, was instructed to gather information on the Postal Service for the Cuban Directorate of
Intelligence in Havana, according to federal officials and six-page indictment handed up by a Miami-Dade grand jury Friday.

"It was clear that they were wanting to use the Post Office to tamper with people's mail and read people's mail," Lewis said.

The couple's daughter, Surama Gari Muñoz, 20, is a soldier in the U.S. Army's Fourth Infantry Division at Fort Hood, Texas.

"Are they crazy?" she said Friday when informed of her parents' arrest. "That's not true. That's not true."

A Justice Department source said there is no apparent link between the daughter and her parents' alleged activities.

George and Marisol Gari and their two school-aged children lived for five months with George Gari's cousin, Lazaro Grueiro, on a cul-de-sac tucked onto the edge
of a golf course near Universal Studios. The neighborhood is a gated community with a security guard to protect residents from intruders.

Grueiro, 54, said he couldn't imagine that his cousin was a spy.

"They're good people," Grueiro said. "Until I understand what is going on, I can't really say what happened."

Grueiro said he and his family took in the couple, who came to Orlando with their 11- and 15-year-olds.

The Garis left Grueiro's home in March and moved in with George Gari's brother, Joseph, in an apartment in Metrowest.

George Gari, 41, worked for Lockheed Martin until a few weeks ago when he took a job as a laborer. FBI agents alleged that Gari tried to get a job at MacDill Air
Force Base in Tampa to infiltrate the U.S. Southern Command.

Marisol Gari, 42, worked part-time as a cashier for an Exxon gas station.

The Garis surrendered at the FBI office in Maitland. The couple appeared before U.S. Magistrate James Glazebrookin Orlando on Friday. Tom Dale, attorney for
Marisol Gari, asked for an immediate bond hearing so his client could request release to take care of her children, but the judge said Marisol Gari is a Cuban citizen
and INS must investigate first. George Gari was born in Brooklyn and grew up in Cuba.

George Gari's lawyer told the judge that his client wanted a bond hearing in Orlando, but also wanted an identity hearing for prosecutors to prove they arrested the
right person. The hearings were scheduled for next week in Orlando.

Dale said Joseph Gari would take care of the children.

"This is real Robert Ludlum material," Dale said. "I'll tell you, as a spy case, it's disappointing."

The Garis are accused of working closely with "Oscar," whose real name is Fernando Gonzalez. He was accused June 8 along with four others as acting as
unregistered agents of the Cuban government. The spy ring's leader, Gerardo Hernandez, was convicted of cooperating in the shooting down of a Brothers to the
Rescue Plane plane in 1996 which killed four pilots.

All five men are awaiting sentencing.

Madeline Baró Diaz, Jose Dante Parra Herrera and Vanessa Bauza of the South Florida Sun Sentinel contributed to this report. Jeff Shields can be
reached at jshields@sun-sentinel.com or 954-356-4531. Susan Clary can be reached at sclary@orlandosentinel.com or reached at 5448.

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