Fluffer & Nutter - The Peanut Butter Sandwich Spies

A nuclear engineer for the U.S. Navy and his wife have been charged with trying to share some of the United States’ most closely held secrets on submarine technology with another country, according to court documents unsealed on Sunday.

The engineer, Jonathan Toebbe, was accused of trying to sell information on the nuclear propulsion system of Virginia-class attack submarines — the technology at the heart of a recent deal that the United States and Britain struck with Australia...

Over a series of exchanges, the F.B.I. persuaded the sender to leave information at a dead drop in return for cryptocurrency payments. The F.B.I. then observed Mr. Toebbe and his wife, Diana Toebbe, at the location of the drop, in West Virginia.

With Ms. Toebbe acting as a lookout, Mr. Toebbe left an SD card concealed inside half a peanut butter sandwich in a plastic bag, according to the court documents. After the undercover agent retrieved the sandwich, Mr. Toebbe was sent $20,000. more