Two Chinese nabbed Stealing Sensors

The Justice Deparment announced yesterday that a Federal judge had sentenced two Chinese students, one a PhD candidate, attempting to steal a sensor and take it, presumably to their employer, Nanjing Shuntai Technology Co. in Jiangsu Province, China, which supplied the money for the purchase of the sensors.    

A story by Olivier Uyttebrouck, Chinese National Pleads Guilty to Weapons Smuggling, Albuquerque Journal, 23 July 2014, says the stolen item was an ARS-14 sensor.  The vendor says these sensors are "Used for everything from crash and ejection testing, to precision platform stabilization and line-of-sight imaging, our sensors are available in both commercial and space-qualified versions. "  

Why do the research and build your own sensor, when you can steal one in the U.S. and have it brought to your facility in China?  Then, it can be reverse engineered and put into many of the very products sold to the world's arms dealers.  

  Bo Cai, 29, of Nanjing, China, was sentenced to 24 months in prison and his cousin Wentong Cai, 30, of Chifeng, China, was sentenced to 18 months in federal prison.  Both will be deported after completing their prison sentences.... The Arms Export Control Act and the ITAR prohibit the export of defense-related materials from the United States without obtaining a license or written approval from the U.S. Department of State.

This is a lovely way to spend Summer break and they can look forward to future employment in China when they finish their jail time.