In 2024, a Cuban national coordinated a series of arson attacks in four EU countries on behalf of Russian intelligence services, an investigation by DW and three other European broadcasters has found. The man, who used the aliases "Adrian" and "Dios" (Spanish for "God"), recruited individuals from Spanish-speaking countries to carry out sabotage operations.
The investigation, based on dozens of interviews with security officials, classified court documents, social media posts, and leaked data, revealed that Dios posted job ads on Telegram and Facebook, offering $1,500 plus bonuses for each completed operation. Recruits were often vulnerable individuals—former soldiers, migrants, and those in financial distress—who were willing to travel for money and ask few questions. "It's often vulnerable people who are being targeted," said Daniela Richterova, an associate professor in Intelligence Studies at King's College London.
One of those recruited was Luis Alfonso Murillo Diosa, a 34-year-old former Colombian soldier who had planned to join the Ukrainian army. Instead, Dios persuaded him to undertake "special missions" in Europe. Murillo was arrested in Bucharest in July 2024 while photographing a recycling facility and an oil well. He told investigators he never intended to commit arson and was only trying to reach Ukraine. In 2025, he was sentenced to six years in prison for attempted sabotage.
The Kremlin has increasingly relied on "disposable agents" after EU governments expelled scores of Russian diplomats suspected of espionage following the 2022 invasion of Ukraine. "That left a gap in Russia's capability, and it took time for them to find this new means of recruiting random people to carry out sometimes apparently random attacks," said conflict researcher Keir Giles. In 2024 alone, disposable agents burned down a shopping center in Poland, set fire to an Ikea store in Lithuania, and delivered incendiary packages that ignited at logistics hubs in several countries. German authorities said throwaway agents steered a drone with explosives toward a Ukrainian freight plane in Leipzig in August.
DW and its partners confirmed that Cuban national Oemis Romagoza Durruthy is the man behind the alias Dios. Born in Camaguey, Cuba's third-largest city, Romagoza has lived in Russia for at least seven years. A Latin dance teacher in the northern Russian city of Petrozavodsk, he married a Russian woman in 2022 and later obtained Russian citizenship. Leaked data indicate he may have faced financial troubles, borrowing money from credit lenders in 2023. Around the same time, he joined Facebook groups of Latin Americans seeking work in Poland or to fight for Ukraine, and Dios began posting job offers on Telegram.
At least nine of the disposable agents Romagoza recruited have been caught. Two are serving sentences of six to eight years for attempted sabotage or terrorism, while others await trial. Meanwhile, European authorities are still after Romagoza, who might still be in Russia. In April, the Made in Cuba studio posted a video of him teaching a salsa class. Around the same time, Romagoza joined at least two more Facebook groups for Latin Americans looking for work in Poland. Russia's sabotage campaign across Europe has not stopped: in August alone, Estonia arrested two suspects for an arson attack targeting a company that supplies unmanned military vehicles to Ukraine, and Poland reported fires at two other facilities where components for drones and helicopters are manufactured.
Source: www.dw.com