FBI Says Chinese Nationwide Finding out In Canada Took Paid Taskings to {Photograph} Airplanes In Toronto and Chicago

OTTAWA — While the case of Biwei Zhang strikes by way of the courts in Brussels, the place an appeals courtroom has prolonged the detention of the Canadian intern from China accused of espionage contained in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization’s navy excessive command, a second file involving a Chinese nationwide dwelling and finding out in Ontario — whose cellphone, United States officers discovered, held pictures of himself and others in tactical formations holding rifle-styled firearms, after he was caught photographing American plane in Chicago and admitted to the same operation at Toronto’s airport — is opening in federal courtroom in Michigan.

Weiheng Zeng, a citizen of China who lives in Cambridge, Ontario, and is an undergraduate on the University of Waterloo, was charged on August 26 with one rely of constructing false statements to federal officers.

The legal criticism is supported by a 19-page affidavit sworn by Robert Holbrook, a particular agent assigned to the FBI’s Counterintelligence Division. Holbrook alleges {that a} Chinese contact assigned Zeng particular plane and tail numbers, paid him $20 to $30 for every accepted {photograph} in yuan transferred to a Bank of China account, mailed him China Telecom SIM playing cards that allowed him to bypass Canadian mobile networks and despatched him on two assignments involving FedEx services — one at Toronto Pearson International Airport in October 2025 and one other at O’Hare International Airport in Chicago the next April.

For the Chicago task, Zeng allegedly admitted {that a} contact he believed was a Chinese authorities safety official gave him a canopy story prematurely to recite if anybody stopped him. Zeng, who was born in 2004, will not be charged with espionage.

The tactical pictures surfaced through the first of three interviews on the Ambassador Bridge, which hyperlinks Windsor, Ontario, with Detroit, Michigan.

“ZENG’s phone was also found to contain pictures of him and other individuals in tactical clothing and in tactical formations, holding rifle-styled firearms,” the affidavit states. “When asked about those pictures, ZENG stated that the weapon was an ‘airsoft’ gun. ZENG stated that he had fired weapons before in Europe, but denied having any military service or training, or having any family who served in the military.”

Zeng was issued a United States B1/B2 customer visa on October 11, 2022, and has entered the nation roughly 24 occasions since then, Holbrook’s affidavit says.