Montreal area in the 1960s in childhood. Decades later in the 1980s, these two russian adults, these two spies stole those identities from those deceased kids from the 1960s and under those identities they started a fake life in toronto. The couple lived in toronto through the 80s and into the 90s. In the 90s as Donald Heathfield and tracy leanne, the fake identities, they had two sons, their sons were born four years apart. After their sons were born in canada in the 90s the family moved sometime in the mid to late 90s to france where the father, Donald Heathfield, went to grad school. He was fluent in french as well as english. As was his wife. The family apparently spoke both french and english at home with their boys. They didnt speak russian at home with their boys even though they were from russia and were native russian speakers. Their sons apparently had no idea that their parents were russian at all. When the story of their very unusual family was ultimately told, the boys wou
Right now. Much appreciated. Thank you very much. Thanks to you at home for joining us this hour. So they were trained spies. They were highly trained in terms of espionage, but also in terms of language and accent and mannerisms, they were supposed to be able to blend right in. And sometime in the 1980s they arrived in canada. Now they arrived at a couple that had false identities. They had false identities that had been stolen from real canadians. Apparently there had been a little boy in the montreal area in the 1960s whose name had been Donald Heathfield and sometime in the 1960s that little child had died in infancy. There had also been a little girl named Tracy Leanne Foley who had also died in the montreal area in the 1960s in childhood. Decades later in the 1980s these two russian adults, these two spies stole those identities from those deceased kids from the 1960s and under those identities they started a fake life in toronto. The couple lived in toronto through the 80s and i
cambridge university students who would later rise and become soviet operatives during world war ii and into the 1950s. we believe the svr illegals operating in this country may well have hoped to do the same thing here. the svr was in it until the long haul. counter intelligence division at the fbi pulled the plug on these russian illegals, including donald heathfield and tracy leanne foley in 2010. under that indictment that was unsealed in 2010 all in one day all across the country they and all the other illegals were all arrested and sent home in a big highly publicized spy swap. the lead case agent for donald heathfield and tracy leanne foley at the fbi, the fbi agent who led this co-vert russian spies for years. all of the intelligence
look, we have a terrible photo of donald heathfield at his harvard graduation from the kennedy school in the year 2000. the reason that we have this not great photo, this grainy photo taken from very far away in the year of 2000 is because this photo was taken by the fbi. because the fbi apparently knew as soon as donald heathfield and his purportedly canadian family got to the united states, the fbi apparently knew that they weren t canadians at all, they were in fact russian spies living under deep cover. donald heathfield and tracy leanne foley had been living for two decades in canada and then in europe before they ever set foot in the united states to start spying for russia here. we now know that the fbi was on to them as spies as soon as they got here. this is the fbi photo of donald heathfield at his harvard graduation in 2000. there were photos of tracy
that s alarming. when you learn that the fbi. you see that work unfolding completely undetected with this incredible level of intrusive surveillance on these spies over the course of a decade. this must be incredibly hard to do without being found out, right? it s also unbelievably cinematic. this case of the russian illegals, this spy ring which was uncovered in 2010, it really is what led to the tv series the americans. in real life in this case there was a side plot to donald heathfield and tracy leanne foley specifically because their sons who had been born in toronto in the 90s, those sons