A notorious CIA officer who drugged and sexually abused “numerous women in multiple countries” over a 14-year period, and kept more than 500 shocking images and videos of his victims, has been sentenced to 30 years in prison.
Brian Jeffrey Raymond, 48, was sentenced Wednesday to 30 years in prison after pleading guilty in November 2023 to four of 25 charges, including sexual abuse, abusive sexual contact, coercion and enticement and transportation of obscene materials. Department of Justice.
He also admitted to “drugging and making indecent images of 28 women without their knowledge or permission, and drugging two other women,” some of the images showing the “predator” groping and straddling the unconscious, nude victims.
“It is no exaggeration to say that he is a sex offender,” Senior U.S. Judge Colleen Koller Kotelly said during the sentencing. “You will have time to think about this.”
Coller-Kotelly slammed Raymond for his “criminal acts” and for “betraying the government and the country.”
A San Diego native, Raymond served in the CIA for more than 20 years, including internships at the White House and Congress.
According to court documents, Raymond was on assignment for the CIA in Mexico, Peru and elsewhere from 2006 to 2020. The investigation did not reveal the nature of Raymond's work but is expected to include a full list of countries where he assaulted women.
He targets women Through dating apps and chance encounters He had known some of his victims as “platonic friends” for nearly 20 years.
During this time, the convicted sex offender “lured unsuspecting women into government-rented housing and administered drugs to them,” U.S. Attorney Matthew M. Graves said at the sentencing.
“He drugged the women, stripped them and sexually abused them and photographed them,” Graves added.
About a dozen of Raymond's victims, identified in court only by numbers, described at the sentencing the horrific damage the former CIA officer inflicted on their lives.
According to the Justice Department, some of the women said they only learned they had been sexually assaulted after the FBI showed them photos of them being attacked while they were unconscious.
“My body looks like a corpse on his bed,” one of the victims told the court. “Now I have nightmares where I see myself dead.”
Another victim said she repeatedly went into a trance-like state and began running red lights while driving, while another said Raymond had taken advantage of her to the point of having a nervous breakdown.
“I hope he lives with the consequences of his actions for the rest of his life,” one of the victims said in court, glaring at the sex offender.
Another of Raymond's victims said he seemed like a “perfect gentleman” when she met him in Mexico in 2020.
She remembered kissing Raymond but passing out soon after, and later discovered he had taken 35 videos and close-up photographs of her breasts and genitals.
Raymond's disturbing crimes first came to light in May 2020, when Mexico City police responded to a call of a nude woman screaming for help from the balcony of a CIA officer's apartment.
The former CIA officer, who speaks Spanish and Chinese, told officers the incident with the woman was consensual, but returned to the United States the next day as lockdowns due to the COVID-19 pandemic began to tighten.
However, during this time, investigators had been tracking him and had obtained a warrant to search his cell phone.
According to court documents, Raymond subsequently “attempted to delete the explicit photos and videos of the victims after learning about the criminal investigation,” but investigators were able to recover more than 500 images and videos showing his criminal conduct.
In examining his devices, investigators also found incriminating online search history for phrases such as “passed out on Ambien and alcohol” and “vodka and valium.”
He was arrested in San Diego in October 2020 and has been held without bail in a Washington, D.C., jail for the past four years.
At his sentencing hearing on Wednesday, the former government official apologized to the victim and said he “takes full responsibility for my outrageous actions.”
“It is a betrayal of my beliefs and I know no apology will ever be enough,” Raymond told the court. “Words cannot express how sorry I am. That is not who I am and that is who I have become.”
As part of his sentence, Raymond will be ordered to pay $10,000 to each of the 28 identified victims and will be required to register as a sex offender.
The CIA has publicly condemned its former employees for their horrific crimes.
“There is absolutely no excuse for Raymond's reprehensible and appalling conduct,” officials said Wednesday. “As this case demonstrates, we will continue to work collaboratively with law enforcement.”
With post wire
