A Navy intelligence specialist stationed at Fort Bragg is under investigation for espionage after he allegedly sold top secret documents to an undercover FBI agent posing as a foreign intelligence officer, according to a search warrant filed in federal court on Friday.
The Naval Criminal Investigative Service is investigating Bryan Minkyu Martin, of the Naval Reserve, after several staged buys of intelligence at two Spring Lake hotels.
A search of public records filed in an online federal court database indicated Martin had not yet been charged in connection with the case.
According to the search warrant, filed by Special Agent Richard Puryear with NCIS, Martin enlisted in the Navy on Nov. 30, 2006, and completed basic training on July 20, 2007. He received a top secret clearance on Sept. 20, 2007, and was subsequently stationed with the Navy Reserve unit Defense Intelligence Agency, according to the warrant.
He was assigned to the Joint Special Operations Command at Fort Bragg on Sept. 16 of this year.
Two months later, on Nov. 15, Martin met an undercover FBI agent in the lobby of the Hampton Inn on Bragg Boulevard in Spring Lake, according to the warrant. The special agent, posing as a foreign intelligence officer, brought Martin to his room, where Martin discussed his access to military computer networks and classified networks, according to the warrant.
Martin also told the agent that he was seeking "long-term financial reimbursement," and that he could be very valuable over a 15- or 20-year career, which he expected would take him to the Defense Intelligence Agency, the warrant says.
Martin offered to bring the agents two documents at their next meeting and accepted $500 in cash from the agent, according to the warrant.
At a meeting the next day at the same hotel, Martin produced two documents - one labelled "secret" and the other "top secret" and accepted $1,500 in cash, the warrant alleges. He agreed to meet the agent again on Nov. 19, when he produced 51 pages of secret and top secret documents, according to the warrant. He was paid another $1,500, according to the warrant.
Martin also failed to report the contacts to any member of his chain of command, according to the warrant.
The warrant authorized NCIS agents to search the room Martin was using on base, Room 315 at the Landmark Inn on Fort Bragg and his 2009 gold Nissan Altima. It does not address how Martin came under suspicion or how he came into contact with the undercover FBI agent.
Martin's status with the Navy wasn't immediately known.
