Couple Allegedly Hid Nuclear Sub Secrets In Spread Sandwich

 

A Navy engineer and his partner were ordered detained Tues unfinished bond hearings on charges of making an attempt to sell secret style info for nuclear-powered submarines to a distant nation as a part of an elaborate undercover work operation infiltrated by the FBI.

Jonathan Toebbe, 42, once appointed to the military service propulsion Program, and Diana Toebbe, 45, suspect of serving as a lookout throughout undercover drops of information cards concealed in a very peanut butter sandwich and a chew gum wrapper, appeared at separate hearings in a West Virginia judicature wherever a judge judge same they qualified for court appointed lawyers.

The Maryland couple, wearing orange jail scrubs, said very little throughout the transient proceedings where the magistrate scheduled  detention hearings for Friday.

Federal prosecutors, citing potential flight risks, are seeking to possess each suspects detained unfinished trial. 

The costs carry a most penalization of life in prison if condemned of violating the nuclear energy Act. they're charged with conspiring to speak restricted knowledge and communication restricted data. 

During this file pic taken Nov. 26, 2009, the Virginia-class submarine Pre-Commissioning Unit American state undergoes trials within the Atlantic. A North American country couple has been in remission in the state of American state for allegedly merchandising info on nuclear warships to what they believed was a distant state, the Justice department same on Oct. 10, 2021. 

Jonathan Toebbe, who worked as a nuclear engineer for the US Navy, and his partner Diana were arrested by Federal Bureau of Investigation agents on Sat and charged with violating the nuclear energy Act in a very criminal complaint, the Justice Department said in a statement.

For quite a year, per federal prosecutors, Toebbe tried to exchange the information for cryptocurrency payments totaling $100,000, 1st contacting a distant government in April 2020.

The identity of the country has not been disclosed, however presently afterward first contact the engineer allegedly began corresponding with an hugger-mugger G-man who Toebbe believed to be a representative of the foreign government.

Toebbe, according to court documents, maintained the correspondence for "several months," resulting in a deal to sell the key data in a very series of planned exchanges.

Quite time period after receiving a "good faith" payment of $10,000 in cryptocurrency from the detective in early June, the couple allegedly traveled to American state wherever – with Diana Toebbe acting as a lookout – Jonathan Toebbe left an information memory card hid in a very [*fr1] spread sandwich at a pre-arranged "dead drop" location.

The agent followed up with another $20,000 payment, and therefore the engineer allegedly provided a decipherment key to access the information card. A second drop of information concealed in a gum wrapper was created at a Virginia location in August that was followed by a $70,000 payment.

Law enforcement agency agents in remission the couple last week once they allegedly placed a 3rd knowledge card containing secret submarine style info at another American state location.