A Navy engineer was arrested and charged Friday with attempting to steal plans for the Navy's most advanced aircraft carrier, now under construction at Newport News Shipbuilding.Mostafa Ahmed Awwad, 35, a York County, Va., resident who worked at Norfolk Naval Shipyard in Virginia, was indicted on two counts of attempted exportation of defense articles and technical data, according to a news release from U.S. Attorney Dana J. Boente. If convicted, he faces a maximum of 20 years in prison on each count.
Awwad intended to send the schematics to Egypt, authorities said.
Court documents describe a saga that included an FBI undercover agent posing as an Egyptian intelligence officer, a clandestine meeting in Sandy Bottom Nature Park in Hampton, a prearranged "dead drop" along a secluded hiking trail and Awwad's alleged intention to wear a pinhole camera to photograph classified material.
During one meeting with the undercover agent, he "discussed where to strike the vessel with a missile in order to sink it," an affidavit states.
Awwad worked in the nuclear engineering and planning department at Norfolk Naval Shipyard, having begun working at the yard early this year, the affidavit says. His security clearance gave him access to information on Naval nuclear propulsion systems.
He made an initial appearance in U.S. District Court in Norfolk, Va., on Friday and is scheduled to appear at the federal courthouse for a detention hearing Dec. 10.
Though it was unclear from the documents how investigators first began to track Awwad, a search warrant affidavit made public Friday says that an FBI undercover agent first called him on the afternoon of Sept. 18.
The FBI agent, "posing as an Egyptian intelligence officer," identified himself as "Yousef," from Washington, D.C., according to the affidavit by FBI Special Agent James Blitzer. The undercover agent then "asked Awwad to meet him at a public park in Hampton" the next day.
Awwad agreed, and they met at...
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