I always wondered how common it was for spies to use diplomatic passports as a cover. It could be so easy, you could bring in anything, guns, electronic devices - and I guess on a commercial flight without going through a metal detector. This is separate from the "economic advisor" who is really a secret CIA or KGB agent or something. In this case it was 4 Russian spies who did travel on diplomatic passports, and the Dutch security service lets the world see what they got from them, a bunch of cell phone like devices.
This is interesting because they were just so blatant about it, parking their rental car right next to the OPCW hq (chemical weapons watchdog) in the Netherlands, filled with electronic devices. It looks like a big FU to the western countries by using diplo. passports, but maybe it's more common than I think? I forget day to day that there really is an ongoing effort between countries to spy on each other, and in this case yet another situation where a Russian agency is working against international agencies.
In the recent UK chemical weapons attack they were not using diplo passports.
This is interesting because they were just so blatant about it, parking their rental car right next to the OPCW hq (chemical weapons watchdog) in the Netherlands, filled with electronic devices. It looks like a big FU to the western countries by using diplo. passports, but maybe it's more common than I think? I forget day to day that there really is an ongoing effort between countries to spy on each other, and in this case yet another situation where a Russian agency is working against international agencies.
In the recent UK chemical weapons attack they were not using diplo passports.