Secret agents living in the shadows of the suburbs

Kindergarten play dates versus the tap-tap-tap of radiograms. Housework versus the “brush pass” exchange of parcels. They were even described as having concealed their missions from their closest observers.

“There is no inkling at all,” said Assistant United States Attorney Michael Farbiarz, “that their children, who they live with, have any idea they are Russian agents.”

In the end, in court, the side of their lives described as cloaked in secrecy and deception mostly won out over parenthood, with two defendants denied bail. Another may be allowed to serve a kind of house arrest next week.

The fourth, who was granted bail, is the one the government concedes lived under her own name: Vicky Pelaez, a veteran columnist for El Diario La Prensa, a newspaper in New York. Her husband, Juan Jose Lazaro Sr., postponed his request for bail.

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