Published Jun 4, 2026, 11:54 AM EDT
The charges stem from a trip to Africa that ultimately ended in Detroit, with a questionable black bag.
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Published Jun 4, 2026, 11:54 AM EDT
Two researchers with the National Institutes of Health (NIH) have been charged with conspiracy to smuggle monkeypox into the United States and giving false statements to federal law enforcement. Vincent Munster and Claude Kwe, both researchers at the Rocky Mountain Laboratory in Hamilton, Mont., are accused of lying to U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agents about the contents of their research, according to an announcement made Wednesday by the Department of Justice. They each face a maximum five-year prison sentence. “No researchers should believe their positions, credentials, or professional status place them above the law,” Jennifer Runyan, special agent in charge of the FBI Detroit Field Office, said in a statement. “The allegations in this case are serious. They involve the dangerous and unlawful smuggling of deactivated [Monkeypox] virus into the United States and alleged efforts to mislead our federal agents.” Munster, 53, is a citizen of the Netherlands and chief of the virus ecology section at the Laboratory of Virology. Kwe, 38, a citizen of Cameroon, 38, is a research fellow in Munster’s section. Authorities said the pair is focused on “emerging viral pathogens” and how those pathogens “cross the species barrier,” working at a Biosafety Level 4 laboratory that employs the highest level of biosafety precautions for scientific research of known and potential human pathogens. On Jan. 25, 2026, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Michigan, Munster and Kwe allegedly arrived at the McNamara Terminal at Detroit Metropolitan Airport with travel originating from Brazzaville, Republic of Congo, where an outbreak of monkeypox—an infectious virus that can result in painful rash, enlarged lymph nodes, fevers and other ailments—was occurring.
