A former State Department official accused of conspiracy to commit espionage for Cuba is now in Sweden, out of reach for now and refusing to talk.

Marta Rita Velázquez was a “talent-spotting” agent for the Castro regime, according to a 2004 indictment unsealed on April 26.

Prosecutors say Velázquez’s top recruit was Ana Belén Montes, who went on to become one of the most damaging spies in U.S. history, authorities say.

They claim Velázquez introduced Montes to Cuban agents in 1984 and later helped her land a job with the U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency. Montes was arrested in 2001, convicted in 2002 and sent to prison.

In 2003, a grand jury charged Velázquez with one count of conspiracy to commit espionage. The indictment was filed on Feb. 5, 2004, but remained under court seal until early this month. U.S. authorities have not explained why they unsealed it in April, more than nine years after the indictment.

Velázquez, now 55, refused to talk when U.S. authorities wrote her in December 2011, asking if she would be interested in settling the accusations against her.

She has been living in Stockholm and has “studiously avoided” traveling to countries where she could be captured and extradited to the United States, prosecutors say.

The U.S. extradition treaty with Sweden does not include espionage in crimes requiring extradition.

Velázquez did not respond to a message left on her phone. A Swedish reporter also called Velázquez’s number and said that a woman answered, irritated, and said, “What? Who is it? Oh, OK,” and then hung up.

At the time she was indicted, Velázquez was living in Guatemala City with her husband, Anders Kviele, a Swedish diplomat.

She had worked for the U.S. Agency for International Development in Guatemala, but quit that job before the indictment.

An Oct. 5, 2011, court document states: “Defendant Velázquez has become a Swedish citizen, but has not renounced her United States citizenship. She has traveled on a Swedish passport with the privileges extended to families of diplomats.”

Velázquez, like Montes, is from Puerto Rico. She became an attorney adviser for USAID in March 1989. She had a top-secret security clearance and worked in Managua, Guatemala City and Washington, D.C.

The indictment alleges that Velázquez carried out a number of overt acts as part of a conspiracy to commit espionage, including the following:

* Dec. 16, 1984: Went with Montes by train to New York and met with a Cuban intelligence official who worked at the Cuban Mission to the United Nations and was identified in the indictment only as “M.”

* March 1985: Traveled with Montes to Spain on a purported vacation. Met with a Cuban man who supplied false passports. Traveled clandestinely from Madrid to Prague using false passports.

Met with two Cuban men, including an agent referred to only as “F.” Picked up clothes at an apartment, then traveled with Montes and “F” to Cuba.

* April 1985: Met with a Cuban agent referred to only as “A.” Velázquez and Montes “received Cuban Intelligence Service training, including instruction in receiving encrypted High Frequency radio broadcast messages of the Cuban Intelligence Service.”

Velázquez asked Cuban agents to give them “practice” polygraph exams “so that they would be able to pass polygraphs they might have to take in connection with future United States government employment.”

Cuban agents gave Velázquez a code name: Barbara. Velázquez and Montes returned to Spain via Prague, posing for a photo in Madrid so they’d have evidence of their “vacation.”

* 1988: “Provoked a dispute with Montes and publicly broke off their relationship.”

* June 15, 1992: “Traveled to Panama to clandestinely meet with Cuban Intelligence Service officers and/or agents.”

* Mid-1996: “Received encryption and decryption software from the Cuban Intelligence Service, and used it for her clandestine communications with the Cuban Intelligence Service.”

* June 2002: Quit her U.S. government job after Montes pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit espionage.