Two foreign nationals with the National Institutes of Health (NIH) at the Rocky Mountain Laboratory have been accused of smuggling the monkeypox virus into the United States.
According to the complaint, Vincent Munster of the Netherlands and Claude Kwe of Cameroon traveled from the Republic of Congo and were found to have a “large black plastic case,” the Department of Justice said. “Munster and Kwe falsely told CBP officers that the black case contained diagnostics and testing equipment,” the DOJ continued. “But subsequent investigation by CBP and FBI agents revealed that the case actually contained 113 vials in Styrofoam coolers. As of the date of the complaint, the FBI has tested 20 of the 113 vials. Seventeen of them contained deactivated monkeypox virus, one contained the Chickenpox virus, and two contained only human DNA.”
The complaint alleges that when prompted to show required documentation to travel with the case, Munster replied, “Yes, yes, it’s all in my laptop, but you won’t need them. I do this all the time.” He was again instructed to present the documents. The FBI later confirmed that the materials were “deactivated monkeypox virus that Munster would need specific approval and documentation to travel with via commercial flight and would have needed to declare upon arrival into the United States.” The complaint notes that the findings make it “reasonable to believe that Munster’s statements regarding the possession of the required documentation to CBP officers were materially false.”
Kwe was “discovered to be a subordinate of MUNSTER at NIH, and it [is] reasonable to believe Kwe had knowledge of the true identity of the samples.”
Both Munster and Kwe’s work focused on “emerging viral pathogens” and how the pathogens “cross the species barrier.” They now face a maximum of five years in prison.
