Move over The Bourne Identity, El Paso just gave us The Bliss Ineptitude. The plot? A Fort Bliss soldier allegedly tried to sell top-secret tank info to the Russians... except every "Russian" he spoke to was actually an undercover FBI agent. Yeah, it's basically Donnie Brasco if Donnie had been wearing an "I'm Totally a Spy" T-shirt the whole time.
The soldier in question, Taylor Adam Lee, reportedly told the agent his "life was a mess" and that he wanted out. Unfortunately, "out" apparently meant a one-way ticket to Moscow and a starring role in his own personal Cold War reboot.
From Downtown Meetings to SD Cards Full of Secrets
According to testimony, Lee met his "Russian contact" in Downtown El Paso on July 9, where he allegedly handed over an SD card containing 40 documents. Picture Mission: Impossible but instead of Tom Cruise dangling from a wire, it's a guy awkwardly sliding a memory card across a café table.
The feds say he boasted of knowing the M1A2 Abrams tank's weaknesses and even promised to snag an antenna and a 3D scan of the tank. By late July, he told his contact he had a hard drive and other equipment stashed in a storage unit. Surveillance reportedly caught him driving recklessly to retrieve it, like Fast & Furious: Espionage Drift, where the only thing he's fast at is incriminating himself.
The Arrest That Played Like the Final Scene of a Bad Spy Flick
On August 6, Lee allegedly showed up near El Paso International Airport thinking he was about to get a Russian passport and travel arrangements. In reality, the FBI was ready to roll credits. When arrested, he reportedly confessed to everything and said he'd do "anything in Russia." (Cue dramatic Hans Zimmer music and slow fade to blue jumpsuit.)
During cross-examination, the defense noted that every "Russian" Lee talked to was an FBI agent except the initial contact at a Russian embassy. It's the kind of twist you'd expect in a Tubi original called From Bliss to Bust: The Taylor Lee Story.
If this ever gets adapted for the screen, let's just hope the casting is better than the tradecraft.