A Dutch virologist has been charged in the United States for smuggling vials of deactivated MPOX virus from the Republic of Congo into the U.S. and lying to the authorities about it. A fellow researcher from Cameroon is facing the same charges, the U.S. Attorney’s Office reported.

Dutch virologist Vincent Munster (53) and Cameroon colleague Claude Kwe (38) work as researchers with the National Institutes of Health (NIH) at the Rocky Mountain Laboratory. They were stopped at the Detroit airport on January 25 after a nine-day stay in the Republic of Congo, where an MPOX outbreak was ongoing.

According to the American authorities, the two researchers were carrying a large black plastic case, which they said contained testing and diagnostic equipment. But investigation revealed that the case contained 113 vials packaged in styrofoam coolers. The FBI has tested 20 of these vials. 17 of them contained deactivated MPOX virus, one contained the chickenpox virus, and two contained human DNA.

The MPOX virus in the vials was deactivated, which means it cannot multiply or cause an infection. Nevertheless, the authorities consider this a very serious offense. “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,” said United States Attorney Jerome F. Gorgon Jr.

“No researchers should believe their positions, credentials, or professional status place them above the law,” said Jennifer Runyan, Special Agent in Charge of the FBI Detroit Field Office. “The allegations in this case are serious.”

The American authorities did not speculate on why Munster and Kwe were smuggling pathogens, but they did note that the men’s research focuses on “emerging viral pathogens” and how those pathogens “cross the species barrier.”

The investigation is ongoing.