UNITED States agents have arrested a Chinese national in North Carolina after a six-year probe into illegal military technology deals.
Restaurateur Kao Yenmen, 54, faces deportation after he was allegedly caught conspiring to export equipment including a navy torpedo and a fighter jet engine.
The early morning raid on his home in Charlotte has had the quiet Southern city amazed at the tale of apparent espionage.
FBI officials refused to say where Kao was trying to steal the classified, embargoed hardware, or which country he was trying to sell it to - although China might have been the destination.
Among the equipment involved was a US Navy MK 48 Advanced Capability Torpedo and a General Electric F404-400 jet engine used to power the military's F/A 18 Hornet fighter plane.
An FBI agent said counter-intelligence agents, together with Customs officials, had been investigating Kao and other Chinese nationals since 1988.
