At the time of their arrests, the spies had seven children ranging in age from 1 to 20, most U.S.-born, and one agent also had an older son from a relationship before she joined the espionagenetwork.
It helped, too, that in May the state released some of its evidence against the Jews: an espionagenetwork centred in Shiraz which is alleged to have been gathering intelligence for Israel for the past 15 years.
In 2010, the FBI rolled up 10 "illegals" all Russian citizens living here under deep cover, part of a clandestine espionage support network under tightly held investigation for over a decade.