 Among the Romanians recruited by the CIA at the beginning of 1951 were Constantin Saplacan, Wilhelm Spindler, Gheorghe Bârsan, Matias Bohm, and Ilie Puiu.The Securitate discovered that these men had been recruited in Italy by a former Romanian pilot.Following this, the Romanian Government sent a note to the United States protesting interference in the country's internal affairs, and that the captured CIA agents had been "sent to carry out acts of terrorism and espionage against the Romanian Army."