Portland Spy Ring

The Portland Spy Ring was a Soviet spy ring that operated in England from the late 1950s until 1961 when the core of the network was arrested by the British security services. It is one of the most famous examples of the use of illegal residents — spies who operate in a foreign country but without the cover of their embassy. Its members included Harry Houghton, Ethel Gee, Gordon Lonsdale and Morris and Lona Cohen (AKA Peter and Helen Kroger).

In 1959 the CIA received letters from a mole, codenamed Sniper (who later turned out to be Michael Goleniewski). Sniper said information was reaching the Soviets from the Admiralty Underwater Weapons Establishment and HMS Osprey at Portland, England, where the Royal Navy tested equipment for undersea warfare. The letters were passed on to MI5, the British security service.

Suspicion fell on Harry Houghton, a former sailor who was a civil service clerk at the base. He had just bought his fourth car and a house and was also a heavy drinker who would buy rounds at the local pubs. Houghton's expenses were far beyond his meagre salary.

MI5 put Houghton under surveillance. They also watched his mistress, Ethel Gee. She was a filing clerk who handled documents Houghton himself did not have access to. They often went to London, where they would meet a man identified as Gordon Lonsdale, a Canadian businessman. During these meetings Lonsdale and Houghton exchanged packages.

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