[A Maryland couple allegedly used the sticky sandwiches and
chewing gum to deliver intel about nuclear subs to a foreign
government.] [[link removed]]

PORTSIDE CULTURE

SPIES ACCUSED OF LEAKING U.S. NAVY SECRETS IN A PEANUT BUTTER
SANDWICH  
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Jelisa Castrodale
October 11, 2021
Food & Wine
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_ A Maryland couple allegedly used the sticky sandwiches and chewing
gum to deliver intel about nuclear subs to a foreign government. _

, Getty Images

 

Everyone knows that peanut butter sandwiches are an unassailable
lunchbox staple, but apparently they're also an indispensable tool for
would-be spies. According to the United States Department of Justice,
an Annapolis, Maryland man who was allegedly willing to sell sensitive
details about our nuclear-powered submarines to a foreign government
hid that info inside half a peanut butter sandwich. And in another
attempt to pass that information on, Jonathan Toebbe used a chewing
gum package.

The Department of Justice said Toebbe was a Department of the Navy
Employee who had been assigned to the Naval Nuclear Propulsion
Program. His work as a nuclear engineer allowed him to receive top
secret security clearance through the U.S. Department of Defense, as
well as "Q clearance" from the U.S. Department of Energy, which gave
him access to "Secret Restricted Data."

According to a criminal complaint, on April 1, 2020, Toebbe sent a
package filled with "a sample of Restricted Data" he could access to
an unidentified foreign government, and allegedly wrote that he would
allow this government to purchase additional information about nuclear
submarines from him. "I apologize for this poor translation into your
language," he allegedly wrote. "Please forward this letter to your
military intelligence agency. I believe this information will be of
great value to your nation. This is not a hoax."

Several months later, Toebbe started exchanging encrypted emails with
someone he believed was from that foreign country, but in reality was
an undercover FBI agent. In June of this year, the undercover agent
sent Toebbe $10,000 in Monero cryptocurrency as a "good faith
payment." A couple of weeks later, the complaint claims, Toebbe and
his wife, Diana, went to a 'dead drop' location in Jefferson County,
West Virginia where they left a peanut butter sandwich that contained
a plastic-wrapped SD card filled with thousands of pages of
"Restricted Data related to submarine nuclear reactors."

In a message that Toebbe allegedly sent to the person he believed to
be a foreign agent, he wrote that he was "extremely careful to gather
the files I possess slowly and naturally" so none of his coworkers
would suspect what he was doing. "We received training on warning
signs to spot insider threats," he explained.

After the agent received that SD card, they sent Toebbe an additional
$20,000 in Monero cryptocurrency. In July, Toebbe allegedly made
another drop, leaving another SD card that was tucked into a Band-Aid
wrapper, and in August, a third SD card was concealed inside a package
of chewing gum. The FBI agent sent Toebbe another $70,000 in exchange
for the decryption key. On October 9, Jonathan and Diana Toebbe were
both arrested at a second prearranged location in West Virginia.

"The complaint charges a plot to transmit information relating to the
design of our nuclear submarines to a foreign nation," Attorney
General Merrick B. Garland said in a statement. "The work of the FBI,
Department of Justice prosecutors, the Naval Criminal Investigative
Service and the Department of Energy was critical in thwarting the
plot charged in the complaint and taking this first step in bringing
the perpetrators to justice."

Diana Toebbe, who allegedly served as a lookout during the SD card
drops, has been suspended indefinitely from Key School, the private
Annapolis school where she has taught for the past 10 years. "Key
School is in no way connected to the investigation nor any personal
criminal activity involving the Toebbes," the school said in a
statement sent to the Baltimore Sun.

The Toebbes have been charged with alleged violations of the Atomic
Energy Act. They are scheduled to appear in federal court in
Martinsburg, West Virginia, on Tuesday. The peanut butter sandwich has
not been charged.

 

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