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Federal prosecutors said Vincent Munster and Claude Kwe were accused of bringing undeclared pathogen samples into the United States after traveling from the Republic of Congo.
By yourNEWS Media Newsroom
A senior National Institutes of Health virologist and a research fellow in his laboratory have been charged in a federal criminal complaint alleging they smuggled undeclared pathogen samples into the United States after traveling from Africa.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Michigan announced Tuesday that Vincent Munster, 53, a Dutch citizen and chief of the Virus Ecology Section at NIH’s Rocky Mountain Laboratories in Hamilton, Montana, and Claude Kwe, 38, a Cameroonian research fellow in Munster’s lab, were charged with conspiracy to smuggle monkeypox into the United States and making false statements to federal law enforcement.
The case was highlighted by animal testing watchdog White Coat Waste, which has criticized Munster’s federally funded research involving primates and bats and argued that such experiments raise taxpayer, biosafety and national security concerns.
According to the Justice Department, Munster and Kwe arrived Jan. 25 at Detroit Metropolitan Airport’s McNamara Terminal after traveling from Brazzaville, Republic of Congo, where a monkeypox outbreak was underway.
Federal officials said Customs and Border Protection officers noticed the men carrying a large black plastic case. When questioned, Munster and Kwe allegedly said the case contained only “diagnostics and testing equipment.”
Investigators later determined that the case contained 113 vials packed inside Styrofoam coolers, according to the DOJ. As of the date of the complaint, the FBI had tested 20 of the vials. Seventeen contained deactivated monkeypox virus, one contained chickenpox virus and two contained only human DNA, federal prosecutors said.
The Justice Department said both men work on “emerging viral pathogens” and how those pathogens “cross the species barrier.” They work at a Biosafety Level 4 laboratory, which uses the highest level of biosafety precautions for research involving known and potential human pathogens.
U.S. Attorney Jerome F. Gorgon Jr. said the allegations involved serious risks because the materials were transported on a commercial flight.
“These NIH experts apparently broke our laws by smuggling viral pathogens on a packed commercial airplane from an outbreak in the Republic of Congo. Let that sink in,” Gorgon said.
FBI Detroit Special Agent in Charge Jennifer Runyan said professional credentials do not exempt researchers from federal law.
“No researchers should believe their positions, credentials, or professional status place them above the law,” Runyan said. “The allegations in this case are serious. They involve the dangerous and unlawful smuggling of deactivated Mpox virus into the United States and alleged efforts to mislead our federal agents.”
The complaint places new scrutiny on NIH pathogen research and the handling of viral samples by scientists working in high-security laboratories. Federal prosecutors said the charges center on the alleged failure to declare the materials and alleged false statements made during the airport inspection.
The case remains at the criminal complaint stage, and the allegations will proceed through the federal court process.
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