Two researchers with the National Institutes of Health have been charged with smuggling monkeypox into the United States and lying about it — an alleged crime that was detected at Detroit Metro Airport.
According to a criminal complaint unsealed on Tuesday, June 2 in U.S. District Court, one of the defendants is from the Netherlands, the other from Cameroon. Both are virus experts who work for the NIH at the Rocky Mountain Laboratory in Montana, in a lab that, according to the government, has the highest level of biosafety precautions for scientific research of known and potential human pathogens. According to the complaint, here is how both researchers landed in federal court, facing criminal charges for allegedly lying to border officials about what they were transporting in their luggage:
On Jan. 25, the two researchers arrived at the McNamara Terminal of Detroit Metropolitan Airport onboard Delta Flight 229 from Paris. Their travel had originated in Brazzaville, Republic of Congo, where there had been a known outbreak of monkeypox.
Upon their arrival, they were inspected and interviewed by U.S. Customs and Border Protection officials. The younger of the two defendants, Claude Kwe, 38, of Cameroon, was selected for a secondary inspection, where his checked luggage would be checked. Officials said he appeared nervous as he retrieved a large, black plastic case and placed it on a cart next to his traveling partner, Vincent Munster, 53, of the Netherlands, who is the chief of the Virus Ecology Section at the NIH lab in Montana.
Both men were escorted to secondary inspection, where CBP officers noted the black plastic case was atypical of business travel luggage. So they asked what was inside. Munster said it contained diagnostics and testing equipment, and that he could verify that with documentation that was on his laptop.
Upon arrival at the passport control area, Munster was instructed to access all required documentation. He replied: “Yes, yes, it’s all in my laptop, but you won’t need them. I do this all the time.”
A subsequent investigation, however, would derail the researchers’ career plans.
The FBI would learn that what was really in their luggage were 113 vials in Styrofoam coolers. To date, the FBI has tested 20 of those vials — 17 of them contained deactivated monkeypox virus; one contained the chickenpox virus; and two contained only human DNA.“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,” U.S. Attorney Jerome Gorgon said in a statement announcing the charges.
“No researchers should believe their positions, credentials, or professional status place them above the law,” added Detroit’s FBI chief Jennifer Runyan. “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. “
Munster and Kwe are scheduled to appear voluntarily in federal court in Missoula, Montana, on Wednesday, June 3, though they will eventually come to Michigan and face prosecution in Detroit. Both are charged with conspiracy to smuggle monkeypox and lying to a federal officer. If convicted, Munster and Kwe each face a maximum sentence of five years in prison.
They could not be reached for comment June 2.
Contact Tresa Baldas: tbaldas@freepress.com
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Feds: 2 researchers smuggled monkeypox through Detroit airport
Reporting by Tresa Baldas, Detroit Free Press / Detroit Free Press
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