Pentagon bought device through undercover operation some investigators suspect is linked to Havana Syndrome

The Defense Department spent more than a year testing a device purchased during a covert operation that some researchers think could have implicated U.S. spies, diplomats and the cause of a series of mysterious ailments popularly known as Havana Syndrome, according to four sources with knowledge of the matter.

A division of the Department of Homeland Security’s Homeland Security Investigations purchased the device for millions of dollars in the final days of the Biden administration using funding from the Department of Defense, according to two of the sources. Authorities paid “eight figures” for the device, these people said, but declined to give a more specific figure.

The device is still being studied, and there is ongoing controversy and skepticism in some circles of the government over its connection to nearly dozens of abnormal health events that have not been officially disclosed.

CNN requested comment from the Pentagon, HSI and DHS. The CIA declined to comment.

One of the sources said the device purchased by HSI produced pulsed radio waves, which some officials and academics have suggested for years could be the cause of the incidents. This person added that the device contains Russian components, although it is not entirely of Russian origin.

Authorities have long struggled to understand how a device powerful enough to cause the kind of damage reported by some victims could be made portable; According to one of the sources providing information about the device, this remains a fundamental question. This person said the device could fit in a backpack.

The purchase of the device reignited a painful and controversial debate within the U.S. government about Havana Syndrome, officially known as “periods of abnormal health.”

The mysterious illness first emerged in late 2016, when a group of US diplomats stationed in the Cuban capital Havana began reporting symptoms consistent with head trauma, including dizziness and extreme headaches. Cases were reported worldwide in subsequent years.

Over the next decade, the intelligence community and the Department of Defense tried to figure out whether these officials were victims of some kind of energy attack directed by a foreign government; senior intelligence officials have publicly stated that there is insufficient evidence to support this conclusion and victims arguing He said the U.S. government gaslighted them and ignored crucial evidence that Russia was attacking American government officials.

Still, defense officials viewed their findings as so serious that they briefed the House and Senate Intelligence Committees late last year, including references to the purchased device and its tests.

One of the main concerns of some officials now is that the technology may have proliferated if proven feasible, meaning multiple countries would now have access to a device that could cause career-ending injuries to U.S. officials, some of the sources said.

CNN was unable to learn where or from whom HSI purchased the device, but HSI has a history of collaborating with the Department of Defense on operations conducted around the world. The office has broad authority to investigate crimes related to customs violations, including investigations into the dissemination of U.S.-controlled technology or expertise abroad.

These investigations are the “biggest point of cooperation between HSI and the U.S. military,” according to a former Homeland Security official.

The U.S. military, for example, turned to HSI when it encountered U.S. technology in Afghanistan or Iraq, which raised questions about how those components got to the region, the official said.

It was also unclear how the US government became aware of the device’s existence in order to purchase it. Havana Syndrome and its cause remained frustratingly elusive to both the intelligence community and the medical community.

One of the problems facing the medical community is that there is still no clear definition of “abnormal health events” or AHIs. In some cases, the tests were done long after the onset of symptoms, making it difficult to understand what was happening physically.

An intelligence panel investigating the cause of AHIs in 2022 said: some episodes It could “plausibly” be caused by “pulsed electromagnetic energy” emitted by an external source.

But in 2023, the intelligence community clearly said: could not connect any cases decided that it was unlikely that the unexplained disease was the result of a targeted campaign by an enemy of the United States. As recently as January 2025, a broader intelligence community assessment was that it was unlikely that the symptoms were caused by a foreign actor; In fact, an official from the Office of the Director of National Intelligence emphasized that analysts “could not rule out” this possibility in a small number of cases.

This attitude has long angered victims; many believe strongly in the existence of intelligence that provides black-and-white evidence that Russia is behind the symptoms; Some of these symptoms are severe enough to require retirement.

Some current and former CIA officials have expressed concerns that the agency is slowing down the investigation. CNN previously reported.

The purchase of the device was considered by some victims as potential revenge.

“If [US government] Marc Polymeropoulos, one of the first CIA officers to say he was injured in a 2017 attack in Moscow, told CNN: “If he actually uncovered such devices, then the CIA owes a massive, public apology to all the victims for how we were treated as pariahs.”

CNN’s Kylie Atwood contributed to this story.

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