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Sandra “Sandy” Grimes, the former CIA officer best known for helping expose Soviet mole Aldrich Ames, has died at the age of 80. Her passing was announced by a family member in a Facebook post.
Grimes was a central figure in one of the most damaging spy cases in U.S. intelligence history. As part of a small CIA-FBI task force, she helped uncover Aldrich Ames, a longtime counterintelligence officer who was secretly working for the Soviet Union. The investigation culminated in Ames’ arrest in 1994, after he had compromised numerous American assets overseas.
Grimes joined the CIA in 1967, initially working as a clerical assistant in the Soviet Bloc Division. Over the years, she became an expert in Soviet intelligence operations, eventually serving as section chief in the agency’s counterintelligence group. Her deep institutional knowledge and pattern analysis skills played a critical role in connecting Ames’ suspicious meetings with his unexplained financial gains.
Throughout her career, Grimes held a range of positions, including Chief of External Operations for Africa and later on the Moscow Task Force. She retired from the CIA in 1993 and went on to co-author Circle of Treason: A CIA Account of Traitor Aldrich Ames and the Men He Betrayed, a detailed account of the mole hunt co-written with longtime colleague Jeanne Vertefeuille.