A Taiwanese couple plotted to sell top secret plans for a small US military drone — used for espionage and reconnaissance — to China, a court in Newark, New Jersey, heard this week.
Shen Hui-sheng, 47, and Huan Lin-chang, 43, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to violate the Arms Export Control Act and conspiracy to import illegal drugs.
They are scheduled to be sentenced on Jan. 5 next year and could each get 20 years in prison and a US$1 million fine.
US military analysts said outside the court that Beijing may have wanted to launch the “RQ-11B” drone — codenamed Raven — from ships and use it to monitor the islands and atolls over which China makes disputed claims in the East and South China seas.
The hand-launched Raven can fly for two hours and has a range of about 16km. It has a wingspan of 1.3m, normally operates at 152m or lower, and is equipped with sensors and cameras that can be used by day or night.
Shen, known as “Charlie,” and Chang, known as “Alice,” were tricked by an FBI “sting” in February 2012 to travel to New York from their home in Taiwan and take delivery of classified manuals for the drone.
The two also plotted to import the illegal narcotic crystal methamphetamine from Taiwan to the US and the undercover FBI agents agreed to pay US$70,000 for 1kg of the drug.
Shen and Chang supplied the FBI agents with a sophisticated code to use when communicating with them in Taipei, and opened a bank account in Hong Kong to receive and disburse funds for the venture.
They told the FBI they were working for a special advisor to a high-ranking Chinese government official.
The two claimed they could smuggle drone parts and drone technology out of the country using techniques they had learned in the narcotics trade.
According to court papers, Shen told the FBI he was a resident of Taiwan and portrayed himself as a logistics expert able to obtain and transmit contraband items throughout the world.
Chang also said that she was a resident of Taiwan, but identified herself as a schoolteacher fluent in English, Spanish, Mandarin and “Fukinese,” also known as Hoklo.
Shen said that he could use frogmen to swim out into the ocean with drone parts and deliver them to a semi-submersible vehicle that would in turn take them to a ship anchored kilometers offshore.
During a meeting with the undercover agents, one agent said that he would prefer not to make money on something that would hurt the US.
Shen replied: “I think that all items would hurt America.”
Both Shen and Chang told the undercover agents that their associates were connected to the Chinese government, working for a Chinese intelligence company similar to the CIA and would be using government money to make the purchases.
“Their status is a bit special, so in order to travel to the UK or US, all developed countries, for them it’s hard…” Chang said.
Shen interrupted: “They are spies. They find it very hard to get a visa. They cannot go to the US or UK.”
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫), spokeswoman Yang Chih-yu (楊智伃) and Legislator Hsieh Lung-chieh (謝龍介) would be summoned by police for questioning for leading an illegal assembly on Thursday evening last week, Minister of the Interior Liu Shyh-fang (劉世芳) said today. The three KMT officials led an assembly outside the Taipei City Prosecutors’ Office, a restricted area where public assembly is not allowed, protesting the questioning of several KMT staff and searches of KMT headquarters and offices in a recall petition forgery case. Chu, Yang and Hsieh are all suspected of contravening the Assembly and Parade Act (集會遊行法) by holding
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