In a shocking revelation, Brian Jeffrey Raymond, a former CIA officer, confessed in a Washington, D.C., court on Tuesday to the drugging and sexual assault of over two dozen women during his overseas assignments.
This confession was part of a federal plea deal that could potentially result in a prison sentence of up to 30 years.
Raymond, 47, pleaded guilty to a single count each of sexual abuse, abusive sexual contact coercion and enticement, and transportation of obscene material. However, as part of the plea agreement, he admitted to victimizing 28 women across six countries since 2006.
A search warrant led to the discovery of a disturbing collection of more than 500 videos and photographs in Raymond's possession, featuring unconscious, unclothed women. In many of these, Raymond is visible, manipulating their nude bodies, forcing open their eyelids, positioning their limbs, and groping their body parts.
U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly, in her decision denying Raymond's bail application in April, described the case as horrific. "The record depicts a sexual predator with the means and motive to seek out unsuspecting women on dating applications, drug them, abuse them, and leave them without the memory or wherewithal to report his deviant schemes to law enforcement," she wrote.
The investigation into Raymond's actions began in May 2020, following reports of a naked woman screaming from the balcony of his U.S. Embassy-rented apartment in Mexico City. Court documents reveal that Raymond had drugged and raped the woman, whom he had met on Tinder, even though she had no recollection of the incident.
Raymond resigned in the same year and attempted to erase the incriminating evidence upon learning of the criminal investigation, but was unsuccessful, according to prosecutors. Investigators retrieved the videos and photos from his phone and iCloud account, and were able to identify the victims, many of whom he had met on dating apps and invited to his embassy-leased apartments under the pretense of having drinks.
Court papers detail one particularly disturbing video where Raymond is seen "grabbing [the victim's] breast and playing with her mouth and tongue as she struggled to breathe." Raymond, a native of San Diego who is fluent in Mandarin and Spanish, targeted women in Mexico City, Peru, and four other undisclosed countries due to security concerns.
Prosecutors had initially planned to call upon as many as 14 victims to testify before Raymond decided to accept the plea deal. He is scheduled to be sentenced on September 19, facing between 24 and 30 years in prison.
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