ISU student Wentong Cai arrested on charge of attempting to smuggle military technology to China
Graduate assistant Wentong Cai works in a lab at Iowa State in September 2013. Wentong has been arrested after attempting to smuggle military technology to China.
June 12, 2014
An ISU graduate student has been arrested for attempting to smuggle United States military equipment into China.
According to a report published by WHO TV, Wentong Cai, graduate student in veterinary microbiology and preventative medicine, has been held in custody without bail since February for attempting to smuggle an ARS-14 military grade sensor into China.
The sensors are used in military aircraft and ground vehicles and it is illegal to export them to China. Wentong is accused of trying to obtain the sensors under the pretense of using them in his research and trying to ship them through his contact, Bo Cai.
Bo’s company, Nanjing Shuntai Technology Co., Ltd., reportedly transferred $27,000 to an undercover agent Wentong was in contact with on Dec. 4, 2013. Wentong and the undercover agent had 22 email conversations, according to WHO.
Wentong used his ISU email while contacting the undercover agent. He attempted to obtain 20 of the ARS-14 sensors from a manufacturing company based in Albuquerque, N.M., according to WHO.
The undercover agent warned Wentong on two separate occasions that sending the sensors to China was illegal.
According to WHO, the agent gave Bo one nonfunctioning sensor hidden within a Dell computer speaker Dec. 11.
Wentong was arrested in Santa Fe, N.M., on Feb. 10. The warrant to search ISU computers — which outlines the case against Wentong — has not been made public yet.
Annette Hacker of the Iowa State University News Service said in an official statement that the university cooperated with federal investigators who contacted them in Dec. 2013 and Jan. 2014 as they were investigating Wentong.
The university does not have specific information about the case against Wentong. He was a Ph.D. candidate at the time of his arrest and had been at Iowa State since 2009.
The U.S. District court in Albuquerque said the search warrant served to Iowa State with details of the case is still sealed.
The Iowa State Daily is working to confirm this information. Check back on iowastatedaily.net for more updates.
