3 Chinese nationals sentenced for taking Navy base pics

KEY WEST, Fla. – Three Chinese nationals have been sentenced to prison for illegally taking photographs at a Florida Navy base.

Lyuyou Liao, 27, was sentenced Friday to 12 months in prison, after pleading guilty to illegally entering NAS Key West on Dec. 26 and taking photographs and video footage of property on the Truman Annex of the station, the U.S. Attorney’s Office of the South District of Florida and the FBI announced in a news release.

Two others, Jielun Zhang, 25, and Yuhao Wang, 24, were sentenced to 12 months and nine months in prison, respectively, for entering naval air station in Key West on Jan. 4, and taking photographs of military and naval infrastructure.

All three were ordered to serve one year of probation, the news release said,

An FBI affidavit says Wang and Zhang drove up to an air station annex entrance and were told by a security officer they could not enter the property without military identification. The FBI said the pair drove onto the base anyway and were apprehended by authorities about 30 minutes later after taking photos of structures on the base.

A fourth Chinese man, Zhao Qianli, pleaded guilty last year to illegally taking photographs at the same Florida Keys installation. Qianli, 20, was sentenced to a year in federal prison.