Plane spotter or Chinese spy? Ontario university student suspected of espionage at airports

An Ontario university student is suspected of espionage after the FBI said he admitted to accessing airport facilities in Toronto and Chicago to take photos on behalf of a shadowy figure from China.

Weiheng Zeng, himself a Chinese citizen, was arrested in Michigan on Aug. 23 after crossing the Ambassador Bridge from Windsor, Ont. He was charged with one count of making false statements.

Zeng appeared in a federal court in Detroit on Tuesday and agreed to remain in custody as he awaits his trial.

A University of Waterloo undergraduate student born in 2004, Zeng first raised U.S. authorities' suspicions in April, after an incident captured on security video at Chicago's O'Hare International Airport, according to a criminal complaint reviewed by CBC News.

At the time, FedEx employees spotted a man taking photos, climbing a forklift and attempting to open a locked delivery truck and a shipping container in the company's parking lot at the Chicago airport, the criminal complaint said.

According to the complaint, Zeng acknowledged he had climbed the forklift at O'Hare 'to get a better angle to take pictures.'

Investigators later linked Zeng to a dark blue Chrysler Town & Country minivan with Ontario licence plates seen on nearby CCTV.

When he attempted to re-enter the U.S. last month while driving the same vehicle, Zeng told U.S. Customs and Border Protection he was headed to Chicago for a one-day trip. Instead, border officers interviewed him three times.

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At first, when border agents found numerous photos of military aircraft on his phone, Zeng purportedly said they were for a flight radar website. He said taking pictures of planes was his hobby.

"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," FBI special agent Robert Holbrook wrote in the complaint. Zeng purportedly said the weapon was an airsoft gun.

According to the criminal complaint, Zeng eventually said he was being paid by someone — identified in the U.S. court records only as "Chinese contact" — to photograph specific planes and their tail numbers.

Zeng believed his contact worked for a Chinese security service and that it was "cool," according to documents filed in U.S. District Court in Detroit. Zeng said they had met on a Chinese forum for aviation enthusiasts in 2024.