National guardsman schemed to help Russia spy on US military, DOJ says

(Daily Caller News Foundation) – A National Guardsman faces decades in prison after federal prosecutors say he plotted to send radio equipment to Russia’s military and spy on a U.S. Army base.

Kansas National Guard member Canyon Anthony Amarys was arrested on Tuesday in Kansas City, Missouri, on a charge of attempting to violate export regulations, court documents show. Amarys contacted Russian government agents “or persons affiliated therewith” and later admitted his plans to undercover federal law enforcement employees, an Oct. 22 grand jury indictment alleges.

Court records do not yet list an attorney for Amarys.

In February, Amarys told an undercover law enforcement employee that he would travel for an in-person meeting to “discuss, in a secure setting, the services he would be providing to the Russian government,” the indictment says. He met later that month in a Kansas hotel room with an undercover employee, signed an agreement confirming he would work in secret for Russian intelligence officials and promised to photograph a military installation at Fort Riley, Kansas, for their benefit, the Department of Justice (DOJ) alleges.

The National Guard official agreed in the same meeting to ship a helicopter radio to Russia’s military in violation of U.S. export regulations, and an undercover law enforcement employee gave him cash to purchase it, according to the indictment. Amarys allegedly bought the radio and shipped it to a Romanian address, admitting on tape that it was to be diverted from there to Russia. He also went through with photographing the Fort Riley installation “that he understood to contain sensitive military technology,” the DOJ wrote.

Amarys faces up to 20 years in prison and up to $1 million in fines if convicted, according to the indictment.