Washington, D.C. ? A former State Department official with top-secret security clearance and his wife have been charged with spying for Cuba over the past three decades, passing information by shortwave radio and correspondence exchanged in local grocery stores, federal prosecutors said.

State Department officials said Friday night they were still assessing the potential damage to the government’s security and intelligence operations and declined to comment further.

Within hours of the couple’s appearance Friday at U.S. District Court jereº, a novel-worthy tale began to emerge from court documents and law enforcement sources, depicting an elderly couple of famed lineage, living in a Northwest Washington neighborhood and traveling abroad under code names, motivated by ideology to pass information to Cuban agents.