Loading ...DOJ charges foreign nationals working at NIH with smuggling monkeypox into US, lying about it
They have been charged with conspiracy to smuggle monkeypox into the United States and giving false statements to federal law enforcement.
The department accused 53-year-old Vincent Munster, a citizen of the Netherlands, and 38-year-old Claude Kwe, a citizen of Cameroon, of allegedly lying to Customs and Border Protection officials at an airport in Detroit about the contents of a large black plastic case they carried with them from a trip to the Republic of Congo in January, where an outbreak of monkeypox was occurring.
“These NIH experts apparently broke our laws by smuggling viral pathogens on a packed commercial airplane from an outbreak in the Republic of Congo,” United States Attorney Jerome Gorgon said in a statement. “Let that sink in.”