WASHINGTON

A US Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) informational technology specialist has been taken into custody on allegations that he attempted to provide classified intelligence to a friendly foreign government.

The Justice Department identified the individual as Nathan Vilas Laatsch, 28, who worked at the DIA on the Insider Threat Division since 2019. Laatsch holds a top-secret security clearance, the department said in a statement released Thursday.

Laatsch was arrested by the FBI after the bureau received a tip that an individual "offered to provide classified information to a friendly foreign government." The email in which the tip was delivered said Laatsch did not “agree or align with the values of this administration” and was “willing to share classified information.” That included “completed intelligence products, some unprocessed intelligence, and other assorted classified documentation," the Justice Department said.

An undercover FBI agent posing as an official of the unspecified foreign government then got in touch with Laatsch, who transcribed classified information on to a notepad at his desk and took the handwritten pages out of his DIA workspace over the course of three days, the department said.

The FBI agent then arranged a "dead drop" in which Laatsch was to leave the classified information in a public park to be retrieved. FBI surveillance observed Laatsch deposit an item at that location on May 1, and retrieved it after he left the area. The department said it included a thumb drive that contained a message and multiple typed documents that contained what the Justice Department described as "portion-marked up to the Secret or Top Secret levels."

"The message from Laatsch indicated that he had chosen to include 'a decent sample size' of classified information to 'decently demonstrate the range of types of products' to which he had access," the Justice Department said.

Prosecutors said Laatsch was interested in receiving citizenship from the foreign government that he believed he was working with, because he did not expect "things here to improve in the long term."

Laatsch was arrested Thursday at a prearranged location while he believed he was making another intelligence drop. He is expected to make his initial court appearance in the Eastern District of Virginia on Friday.