An US Navy sailor was sentenced on Wednesday for espionage after selling marine secrets to a Chinese intelligence officer, federal officials said.
Jinchao Wei, a 25 -year -old who also goes through Patrick Wei, was declared guilty of six crimes, including conspiracy to commit espionage, espionage and illegal export and conspiracy to export, technical data related to defense articles in violation of the arms export control law and international trafficking in arms regulations. It was found not guilty of a naturalization fraud charge.
The prosecutors said that Wei used his position as a mastery player on the Anfibio Uss Essex assault ship in the San Diego Naval Base to feed the information to a Chinese intelligence officer who recruited Wei on social networks in February 2022. He held a security authorization from the United States and had access to sensitive national defense information, including the weapons of the Essex, the prosecutors said.
Anfibian assault ships allow the military to project power and maintain the presence by serving as the cornerstone of the amphibious preparation of the Navy and the expeditionary attack capabilities, said the United States Prosecutor’s Office for the Southern District of California in a press release.
Their lawyers did not immediately respond to a comment request on Thursday.
According to the press release, the intelligence officer initially presented himself as a naval enthusiast who worked for a naval construction company in China. However, the evidence revealed that Wei had suspected the true identity and reason of the intelligence officer.
The prosecutors said that Wei told a friend who was also in the Navy that he thought he was “in the radar of a Chinese intelligence organization” and that he was “extremely suspicious” of the person. Wei told his friend that the person was “interested in the maintenance cycle of naval ships” and wanted Wei to walk along the dock daily to see which ships were docked, according to the press release. Wei told his friend that the person would pay him $ 500.
Although Wei told his friend that he believed he was “obviously” espionage, Wei continued to communicate with the person in an application for encrypted messaging and “began to spy on the intelligence officer,” said the lawyer’s office.
From March 2022 to August 2023, when Wei was arrested, he sent photographs of the Essex, the location of several ships from the Navy told the intelligence officer and described the weapons of defense in the Essex, according to the press release. He also described problems with his ship and others and sent the intelligence officer “thousands of technical and operational information pages about the War Surfaces of the US Navy.
The lawyer’s office said that in total Wei gave the intelligence officer about 60 technical and operational manuals on the US Marine ships. UU., Dozens of photographs and documents about the US Navy. UU. And Wei’s tasks on the ship. Many of the manuals contained export control warnings on the cover pages.
In exchange for information, Wei was paid more than $ 12,000 for 18 months.
US prosecutor Adam Gordon said Wei’s actions showed an “atrocious betrayal of the trust in him as a member of the US army.”
“By exchanging military secrets to the People’s Republic of China for cash, it endangered not only the lives of their fellow sailors but also the security of the entire nation and our allies,” he said in a statement. “The jury’s verdict serves as a crucial reminder that the Department of Justice will vigorously process the traitors.”
Wei is scheduled to be sentenced on December 1.
