On Friday Diana Toebbe,46, a teacher and the wife of a former US Navy engineer pleaded guilty. The couple both initially pleaded not guilty, before accepting plea deals.

Diana Toebe admitted her knowledge of the conspiracy with her husband, Jonathan. And acting as his lookout at three “dead drop” locations. The memory cards were hidden in items, such as a peanut butter sandwich and a packet of gum.

She was facing life in prison with a fine of up to $100,000. And a long term of supervised release, not more than five years.

In a plea deal, Diana Toebbe agreed to a maximum 36-month federal prison sentence for her role in the spy case. She is charged with conspiracy to communicate restricted data. 

Jonathan Toebbe, 46, had pleaded guilty on Monday in a Martinsburg, West Virginia, Courthouse. And admitted to the plot to sell classified information about nuclear submarines to a foreign country.

He also admitted to exchanging SD cards full of military confidential information for cryptocurrency. Toebbe will serve a minimum of 12 and a half years in federal prison as part of his plea agreement, prosecutors said.

 The events unfolded over several months in 2020 and 2021, according to the Department of Justice. And the spy couple was arrested in October 2021 by FBI agents. And had been closely surveilled by authorities during a year-long sting operation.

Spy case involving nuclear-powered subs 

According to court documents, Jonathan Toebbe was a nuclear engineer with top-secret security clearance. Toebbe worked in the Naval Nuclear Propulsion Program. And had unrestricted access to sensitive military designs for reactors on nuclear-powered warships.

 In April 2020, he sent a package of top-secret Navy documents to an unnamed foreign country. In the package were instructions for how to obtain additional information.

Toebbe allegedly gave additional military secrets to the FBI pretending to be a foreign official in exchange for $100,000 in crypto.

In June 2021, Toebbe left an SD card containing top secret info inside half of a peanut butter sandwich. He received a payment of $20,000 in crypto. Then he sent an email with a decryption key to the undercover FBI agent.

He left another SD card, hidden in a pack of gum in a second dead-drop. And received $70,000 in August, the feds said. 

The couple was busted when they completed the third drop in October. Both have been in custody since their arrest in the spy case.

“Among the secrets, the US government most zealously protects are those related to the design of its nuclear-powered warships,” Assistant Attorney General Matthew G. Olsen of the Justice Department’s National Security Division said in a statement. “[Jonathan Toebbe] was entrusted with some of those secrets and instead of guarding them, he betrayed the trust placed in him and conspired to sell them to another country for personal profit.”