Feds Charge Two NIH Researchers With Smuggling Mpox into U.S.

June 11, 2026

https://childrenshealthdefense.org/defender/feds-charge-two-nih-researchers-with-smuggling-mpox-into-us/?

‘Let That Sink In’: Feds Charge Two NIH Researchers With Smuggling Mpox Into U.S.

Two NIH researchers are charged with conspiring to smuggle biological materials, including deactivated monkeypox virus samples, into the U.S. from Africa. The researchers work at a Biosafety Level 4 laboratory in Montana. The charges have renewed scrutiny of safety procedures for handling potentially dangerous pathogens.

by Henrick Karoliszyn, DSW

June 3, 2026

Claude Kwe, mpox test tube, vincent munster

Two National Institutes of Health (NIH) researchers are charged with conspiring to smuggle biological materials, including deactivated monkeypox virus samples, into the U.S. from Africa. The researchers also allegedly lied to federal authorities about what they were carrying, according to a criminal complaint unsealed Tuesday in federal court in Detroit.

Vincent Munster, Ph.D., a Dutch citizen and chief of the Virus Ecology Section at NIH’s Rocky Mountain Laboratories in Hamilton, Montana, and Claude Kwe Yinda, Ph.D., a Cameroonian research fellow, are charged with conspiracy to smuggle goods into the U.S. and making false statements to federal investigators.

Both men work at a Biosafety Level 4 laboratory, the highest level of containment used for research involving dangerous pathogens.

According to federal prosecutors, the researchers arrived at Detroit Metropolitan Airport on Jan. 25 after traveling from the Democratic Republic of Congo, where a monkeypox outbreak was ongoing.

Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officers questioned the pair about a large black case they were carrying. Prosecutors allege the men told officers the case contained diagnostic and testing equipment, but investigators later determined it held 113 vials stored in Styrofoam coolers.

Testing of a portion of the samples found deactivated monkeypox virus in 17 vials, chickenpox virus in one vial and human DNA in two others.

“These NIH experts apparently broke our laws by smuggling viral pathogens on a packed commercial airplane from an outbreak in the Republic of Congo,” U.S. Attorney Jerome F. Gorgon Jr. said in announcing the charges. “Let that sink in.”

Federal authorities stressed that the case centers on alleged violations of importation and disclosure requirements. Prosecutors did not accuse the defendants of intentionally releasing pathogens or harming the public.

FBI Detroit Special Agent in Charge Jennifer Runyan said the allegations demonstrate that scientific credentials do not exempt researchers from federal statutes.

“No researchers should believe their positions, credentials, or professional status place them above the law,” Runyan said. (See link for article)

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Activism, Viruses

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