Former DIA IT specialist pleads guilty to attempting to leak classified information

A former Defense Intelligence Agency IT specialist has pleaded guilty to attempting to pass secret and top-secret information to foreign spies following a successful FBI sting operation. Nathan Vilas Laatsch, 29, was arrested in May 2025 after an undercover FBI agent caught him transmitting intelligence packages in a public park, believing they would be collected by a foreign government's spy, with further coverage provided by The Register.

Laatsch, who had top-secret clearance and worked in the DIA's Insider Threat Division, offered to transmit classified information to a "friendly foreign government" in March 2025. The FBI initiated an undercover operation, posing as representatives of the foreign government. Laatsch accessed classified information, transcribed it onto physical notepads, and concealed the notes in his socks and lunchbox. He then transferred the information to a thumb drive and attempted to dead-drop it in an Arlington, Virginia park. The FBI recovered the drive, which contained nine documents, eight of which were classified as top-secret.

The transmitted files included sensitive intelligence collection methods and analysis of foreign military exercises. Laatsch also expressed a desire for foreign citizenship. He was arrested during a second attempted intel drop on May 29, 2025, after electronically transferring files from a picnic table. His plea agreement recommends a sentence between 11 and 18 years.

Source: The Register