Navy engineer who hid nuclear submarine secrets in peanut butter sandwich changes plea

A former Navy engineer accused of trying to sell sensitive information about the Navy's nuclear-powered submarines to a foreign country by hiding them in a peanut butter sandwich changed his plea to guilty in federal court documents.

The wife of Jonathan Toebbe, Diana Toebbe, pleaded guilty to charges of helping him conduct surveillance to determine whether they were being followed.

The couple of Annapolis, Maryland, had initially pleaded not guilty after their arrests last year. They plead guilty earlier this year to one felony count of conspiracy to communicate restricted data. U.S. District Judge Gina Groh, rejected the pleas last month, saying the sentencing options seemed to be a bit deficient considering the seriousness of the charges.

The deal would have sent Jonathan Toebbe to prison for 12 years, while Diana Toebbe was to serve three years.

Under Tuesday's new guilty plea, each will face a maximum sentence of life in prison and a $100,000 fine, although prosecutors are asking for a sentence for Diana Toebbe at the lowest end of the guideline range.

Jonathan Toebbe, who worked with the Navy in 2012, was arrested in West Virginia last year on charges of conspiracy to communicate restricted data and other crimes. His wife, a former teacher in Maryland, was arrested on charges that she assisted him.

Prosecutors said Jonathan Toebbe mailed a package of classified information to representatives of a foreign country in April 2020 that he was trying to develop a relationship with, according to a criminal complaint.

He offered to reveal more secrets in exchange for hundreds of thousands of dollars in cryptocurrencies. Officials in the country, whom authorities did not identify, alerted the U.S. and the FBI reached out to Jonathan Toebbe, pretending to be from the country he contacted.

The complaint said that Jonathan Toebbe wanted only to deal strictly by email at first, but later agreed to store data on memory cards that he would leave at designated dead drop locations.

During a drop in West Virginia, he concealed the memory card in plastic that he placed in a peanut butter sandwich, according to the complaint. During another incident he allegedly put the card in a Band-Aid wrapper and a plastic bag. The complaint described another instance in which Jonathan Toebbe put the card in a chewing gum package.

Prosecutors said the sensitive information contained details about Virginia-class submarines, which are nuclear-powered fast attack warships.

By August of 2021, Jonathan Toebbe had received $100,000 in Monero, a criptocurrency, from a FBI agent he thought was his foreign contact.

The FBI's Peter Olinits, who worked on the case, previously said the Toebbes were identified when the investigators saw them return to a car that was registered to Diana Toebbe. The couple wore hiking clothes and were dressed to blend in, according to Olinits. If the court doesn't accept the latest plea agreement, Jonathan and Diana Toebbe would have the right to withdraw their guilty pleas.