Tomio Geron (’06) writes for the Press Telegram on the dramatic case of Tai Wang Mak and his wife, Fuk Heung Li, who were arrested in 2005 on charges of espionage. The pair were nabbed boarding a flight for Hong Kong while several relatives, including Mak’s brother, were arrested in a separate sting. Mak and Li are scheduled to stand trial in May.

The FBI surveillance was a spy novelist’s dream, involving secret wiretaps, garbage can searches, torn-up documents pieced together, secret code words in Chinese, and audio- and videotaping of the suspects in their homes, cars and workplaces.

The 15-count indictment against the Maks, together with thousands of pages of court filings, paint a picture of a onspiracy extending from China to Hong Kong to Southern California.

The Chinese government wanted the information on U.S. warships and submarines to develop its own “blue water” or deep sea navy and “gain a tactical advantage over U.S. Naval and allied forces,” the indictment alleges.

Read the full story here.