Two Taiwan nationals today admitted their roles in a scheme to export sensitive U.S. military drone technology overseas, federal prosecutors say. Hui Sheng Shen, 47, and Huan Ling Chang, 43, pleaded guilty to conspiring to violate the Arms Export Control Act during a hearing today before U.S. District Court Judge Esther Salas.They also admitted conspiring to import crystal methamphetamine into the U.S. while engaging in what prosecutors say was a wide-ranging criminal enterprise that criss-crossed the globe with stops in China, the Philippines Taiwan, Hong Kong and the U.S.
In September 2011, prosecutors say Shen and Chang asked undercover agents from the FBI whether they would pass along highly sensitive American military technology to the People’s Republic of China, prosecutors say.
Two months later the undercover agents informed Shen and Chang that they could get their hands on drone technology as well as a manual for the “Global hawk”, prosecutors say.
Shen and Chang told the agents their clients were interested in a small UAS known as the “RQ-11B” and related manuals and asked the cost, prosecutors say.
After being told by an agent that it was illegal to export any of the items, Shen said that he would use techniques he learned from drug trafficking to get the RQ-11B out of the country, they say.
Those techniques included the use of scuba divers to swim out to a ship docked offshore and loading parts of the drone onto a remote-controlled semi-submersible vehicle that would rendezvous with a ship.
The pair were arrested shortly after they took photographs of manuals for two military drones.
In February 2011 during a meeting in Manila, Shen arranged for the delivery of a sample of crystal methamphetamine to undercover FBI agents, prosecutors say.
In July 2011, the drug was shipped to the U.S. hidden in a shipping container and was discovered by law enforcement agents.
Shen and Cheng each face a maximum penalty of 25 years in prison and a $1 million fine at their sentencing scheduled for Jan. 5, 2015.
Photo: U.S. Attorney Paul Fishman
Source: NJ News