Federal law enforcement agencies on Tuesday charged two researchers at a National Institutes of Health lab in Montana with conspiracy to smuggle deactivated mpox virus into the United States and with giving false statements about it.
The researchers are Vincent Munster, an award-winning scientist who heads the virus ecology section at the Rocky Mountain Laboratories in Hamilton, Montana, a small town an hour’s drive south of Missoula, and Claude Kwe, a research fellow in Munster’s section, according to a statement from the Department of Justice. Munster is Dutch. Kwe is Cameroonian.
The two researchers did not immediately respond to a request for comment when contacted through LinkedIn.
Munster and Kwe work with dangerous pathogens at the laboratory, which conducts its work at the government’s highest biosafety level.
The charge comes a week after Republican Sen. Tim Sheehy of Montana asked the Department of Health and Human Services’ inspector general to review the renowned lab after a monkey infected with Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever bit a worker there last year.
In his request, Sheehy also mentioned a whistleblower complaint made public by the conservative animal rights group White Coat Waste targeting Munster.
MAGA influencer Laura Loomer, who is close with President Donald Trump, has drawn attention to the issue and has urged federal intervention against the lab and against Munster.
The FBI, the Customs and Border Protection division of the Homeland Security Department and the HHS Office of the Inspector General said Tuesday that Munster and Kwe arrived at the Detroit airport in January from Brazzaville, capital of the Republic of Congo.
CBP inspected and interviewed the researchers, who were carrying a large black plastic case, according to the Justice Department statement.
“Munster and Kwe falsely told CBP officers that the black case contained diagnostics and testing equipment,” the Justice Department said.
The FBI and CBP inspected the case, and found 113 vials. The FBI said it has so far tested 20 of those, 17 of which contain mpox, formerly known as monkeypox, a rash-causing disease endemic to the region that is sometimes fatal. A 2022 outbreak of the virus reached the United States, infecting more than 30,000 and killing 42, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The virus Munster and Kwe were allegedly carrying had been deactivated, according to the Justice Department statement, which means that it had been altered so it can no longer replicate or infect cells.
One of the vials contained chickenpox, another rash-causing virus that can be dangerous for children and people with weakened immune systems, the Justice Department said. The two other vials tested contained human DNA, the department said.
“These NIH experts apparently broke our laws by smuggling viral pathogens on a packed commercial airplane from an outbreak [of mpox] in the Republic of Congo,” said Jerome F. Gorgon Jr., the U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Michigan, in the Department of Justice statement.
Marcus L. Sykes, the special agent in charge at the HHS OIG, said in the same statement that “any deliberate effort to conceal and smuggle biological materials into the United States without proper authorization is a breach of the public’s trust and could have placed the public at risk.”
Munster and Kwe face a maximum sentence of five years in prison if found guilty.
The NIH is cooperating fully with law enforcement and appropriate authorities, said Emily Hilliard, a senior HHS press secretary.
She said that NIH was made aware of the incident at the Detroit airport in January and the agency leaders “immediately activated established agency protocols to safeguard related laboratory facilities, research materials, and biological samples.”
These measures included “securing relevant laboratory spaces, restricting access to affected areas, and conducting a comprehensive audit and inventory assessment to verify that all materials were appropriately accounted for, documented, and maintained in accordance with all relevant biosafety policies, requirements, and procedures,” she said in an emailed statement.
“NIH also took appropriate personnel actions and took all relevant steps to confirm that there was no risk at any time to the staff or public in or around” the Rocky Mountain Laboratories, Hilliard added.
She said that the “NIH is committed to maintaining the highest standards of biosafety, biosecurity, and stewardship of research materials” and that the agency’s leaders continue “to prioritize biosafety across the agency and to promote a strong culture of accountability, compliance, and responsible scientific research.”