Jielun Zhang and Yuhao Wang, both 24 years old and recently students at the University of Michigan, have admitted to one misdemeanor charge related to taking photos of naval structures. Both students could face a maximum prison sentence of one year, one year of supervised release and a fine up to $100,000.
“Wang and Zhang each took photographs of military and naval infrastructure,” documents attached to their guilty pleas read, the Miami Herald reported.
The duo were both arrested in the Sigsbee Annex of Naval Air Station Key West in January after repeatedly ignoring road restriction signs and commands, according to an affidavit filed in federal court in January and observed by Florida Keys News.
The court document said that Zhang and Wang were traveling in a blue Hyundai vehicle operated by Wang on January 4. They were ordered to leave the Sigsbee Annex when they were unable to produce proper military identification to an unnamed Navy master-at-arms at a guard station. Despite this, they continued onto the property and took photographs with a camera and cellphones. However, security personnel eventually managed to catch up with the Chinese nationals.
The court document revealed that authorities, after obtaining “consent to look at the devices,” also found photographs of “US military structures on Fleming Key” - an island off the northwest corner of Key West.
Zhang and Wang’s guilty pleas come just a couple of weeks after Chinese national Lyuyou Liao, 27, pleaded guilty to the same charge after police found him trespassing the Navy’s Truman Annex in downtown Key West on December 26, 2019.
Sentencing hearings for all three men are scheduled to take place on May 11 before Chief Judge K. Michael Moore at the US District Court in Key West.
Since 2018, four Chinese nationals have been caught snapping photos of Navy bases in Key West. Zhao Qianli was also accused of illegally photographing Naval Air Station Key West in February 2019 and was sentenced to a year in prison after pleading guilty to related federal charges.