[8] This was found ironic by the Cuban exile community in Little Havana because his father, Mariano Faget Diaz, had a reputation as one of the most brutal anti-Castro and anti-Communist police officers in the Batista regime, accused of torturing and murdering those he suspected of having communist affiliations.

[9] Journalist Alfonso Chardy at the Miami Herald wrote: "Accused Cuban spy Mariano Faget Jr. has lived a life filled with ironies.

[10] In 1957, Cuban intelligence officers uncovered a plot to kill or kidnap Mariano Faget at Colegio Cima.

[10] On the eve of December 31, 1958 and into the morning of January 1, 1959, with the success of the Cuban Revolution, Faget fled the Castro regime.

[10] Faget told the Miami Herald: "My last view of Havana were the blue flashes of guns fired by Castro rebels shooting up at the planes.

[10] On November 22, 1963, the same day of the assassination of John F. Kennedy, Faget was sworn in as an American Citizen.

[10] In 1971, Faget received a promotion to immigration Inspector and was posted to the Miami International Airport.

"[3] At the conclusion of the information gathering phase of the investigation, they jointly launched a sting operation they called "False Blue.

[8] He told Faget that he needed assistance preparing immigration documents in a "highly sensitive and top-secret Cuban defection.

[8] After this, INS agents requested assistance processing asylum papers for a defecting Cuban intelligence officer.

Faget identified the full name of the individual for whom he had been asked to prepare the political asylum document.

[8] After this phone call, Font immediately met with a diplomat named Jose Imperatori, designated deputy consul in the Cuban Interests Section.

[10] Faget told the Miami Herald: "'It was Font who came up with the idea of America-Cuba with a view to getting ready for Castro's downfall, because at the time everybody believed that his days were numbered.

"[10] As a result of this investigation, Jose Imperatori was given persona non grata (PNG) status and ordered to be expelled from the United States.

On May 30, 2000, Faget was convicted on these four counts of violating the Espionage Act of 1917;[4][8] Prosecuting attorneys Richard Gregorie and Curtis Miner requested a sentence of between 10 and 15 years.

[8] Judge Alan Stephen Gold noted Faget's 35 years of "otherwise exemplary service," as well as the strange situation involving the case.

[8] He recommended to the Bureau of Prisons that Faget serve his sentence at the low-security complex at the United States Penitentiary in Coleman, Florida.

[18][19] This is the same day that the Senate appropriated over 28 million dollars to the Office of Cuba Broadcasting for further modernization of their Radio and TV Marti program.