Chinese national pleads guilty to espionage, used drone to spy on Navy ships being built

NEWPORT NEWS, Va. (WAVY) — A Chinese national graduate student from Minnesota pleaded guilty to charges stemming from the Espionage Act for taking drone footage of Huntington Ingalls Industries Newport News Shipbuilding.

“Our enemies would love to know about what we’re building, what we’re doing in this area to get a leg up on us any given time,” said FBI Norfolk Special Agent in Charge Brian Dugan.

With all the military bases and Department of Defense contractors here in the Hampton Roads area, there’s a lot of sensitive information to protect.

Dugan said it’s important for our sailors, soldiers, airmen and other military personnel to be ahead of our adversaries.

“If our adversary is stealing information about what we’re building, the technology we have, that’s going to give them a leg up to do harm to our folks overseas,” Dugan said. “Our job in the FBI is to make sure that we’re protecting that so we still have the advantage over the adversary.”

The drone operator, Fengyun Shi, was flying the unmanned aircraft outside the 65th Street and Huntington Avenue Entrance of HII Newport News Shipbuilding when it got stuck in a tree.

According to court documents, the files obtained on the SD card showed he captured video of U.S. Navy vessels or vessels intended for use by the Navy.

This violates the Espionage Act, which prohibits a person of taking pictures of companies that manufacture classified military equipment.

“You driving by and just looking at it and seeing an aircraft carrier being built, that’s great, but we don’t want that to be something that someone cheats to get and then captures it and who knows what’s going to happen with it,” Dugan said.

But it was neighbors who really brought this case to light by calling police after seeing Shi acting suspicious on their street.

“When Newport News gets those phone calls, they know to call NCIS, they know to call the FBI and we team up right away,” said Dugan. “We team up right away because everybody in this area, whether it’s local cops or federal authorities, we understand the security implications that we have in this area.”

Dugan said it sounds cliché, but if you see something, say something.

“Because there’s so much in our area, even though it’s a small area, we need people that are our eyes and ears to help mitigate the threat and help protect Hampton Roads,” Dugan said.

Dugan said the Department of Justice takes espionage charges very seriously and credits the working relationships and their worldwide reach in cases like this.

“That’s why, [it’s] even more important, the partnership between the FBI, NCIS and the U.S. Attorney’s Office and Department of Justice to make sure that we use those avenues, those laws appropriately,” Dugan said.

Shi is set to be back in court for sentencing on Sept. 24.

The maximum penalty for the subset of charges of the Espionage Act that he violated would be about a year in prison.

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