Welcome to Spycraft, a podcast that tells gripping life and death spy stories and
the amazing devices and operations that made them possible. Now let's get started.
Welcome everybody today, we're gonna be talking about a spy story and pepper shakers.
Believe it or not. You see, the CIA how to get creative
with their bugging operations as part of their never ending battle with the KGB.
In many ways, the CIA's lesser known audio technicians part of the ts Technical
Services Division which is now the OTS where every bit the equal of their more
famous counterparts in the clandestine Service. They were highly trained and serve titious entry
and the use of operational covers, and often worked in some of the most
dangerous parts of the world. What ended up happening, though, is the
Europeans, well this is Northern n actually called upon the TSD to solve a
problem that they couldn't figure out. A Soviet diplomatis suspected KGB officer had begun
meeting regularly with the senior government minister. While the meetings had legitimacy and the
fact that they were based on official duties of the two men, the security
service in the Northern Europe suspected the minister of also spying for the Soviets,
yet their investigation had turned up no hard evidence of espionage when this was problematic.
So what they ended up doing is the alleged KGB officer was kg He
was professional, Sha'll tell you in a minute. He met the minister openly,
the government minister at expensive, well known restaurants to discuss legitimate diplomatic matters.
That was true. Several times counterintelligence officers had notice of a plan meeting
and plotted with the restaurant's manager to install monitoring equipment at the table where the
Soviet would be seated. They deploy never seemed to work. In some instances,
the Soviet even canceled reservations at the last moment in favor of an alternative
location. In other cases, the KGB officer and the minister objected to the
table offered and insisted on another. Obviously, these were techniques to avoid being
caught. Tom Grant had been in the country several times providing technical support to
joint operations. On one of his trips, and Grant's contacts confided, we're
certain the minister's dirty, but we can't get the goods on this guy.
End quote. Now, the individual Tom Grant, whether his name, Rio's
name or not, I was looking at pepper mills or pepper shakers as they're
known, and he wondered maybe these could go. These could be used to
hide audio equipment inside to record the conversation. None of the pepper mills ever
made the trip to America. Grant went directly to the audio shop audio shopper.
He had several cylindrical transmitters that would fit probably quite nicely inside these pepper
mills or pepper shakers. With the help of concealment text, he just assembled
the pepper shakers and created a cavity sufficient for the transmitter, microphone, and
batteries. By modifying the grinding and dispensing mechanisms, A small pepper reservoir was
retained so it can still function, and this would provide the bugs with an
active concealment. When showed the pepper shaker bug, the local security service agree
that it might work and even sought the assistance of managers at three restaurants where
the KGB officer and his minister frequently met. So you can see they're starting
to figure this out. The operation went off perfectly. The two officials met
over lunch at one of the three cooperating restaurants. There are three restaurants that
they targeted that they've usually visited, but rather than try to place the transmitters
on a specific table, the service asked the managers to remove all pepper shakers
from the table and then bring one to the table after the patrons were seated.
Now this was a key part of the plan because remember the KGB officer
and the Minister would shit would shift tables most of the time. When they
got there, they would ask to move tables. So now by providing the
pepper shaker after they moved, it wouldn't matter, and it worked perfectly.
What happened is the KGB off officer arrived, he asked for a different table
like he normally would, and then of course the minister joined him and the
head waiter in on the spy mission. Here put the pepper shaker down right
between the two of them, and the KGB officer and the minister ordered a
meal as normal and engaged in small talk. And actually nothing was really going
on for about an hour or so, and then something happened. Once lunch
was about to be over and the KGB officer paid the bill. He leaned
over and gave the minister precise directions for a dead drop, and the message
was lot and clear from the pepper shaker at that point they got him.
Later, the government minister was arrested as a spy and the KGB officer expelled
from the country. So you can see how this turned out for them.
The operation went off perfectly. The European diplomat was arrested by his own intelligence
service and the KGB official was expelled from the country, all because of the
pepper shaker, and all because he traveled to Europe. He saw a pepper
shaker on his family trip and it made him think, how you could put
a device in here. And again this was the TSD. So they have
these professionals in the CIA, always looking for wiring devices and ways of doing
things, and we'll be looking at more of these techniques throughout our podcasts.
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