The United States Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Michigan announced on June 2, 2026 that Vincent Munster and Claude Kwe, both NIH/Rocky Mountain Laboratories researchers, were charged in a criminal complaint with conspiracy to smuggle monkeypox into the United States and with making false statements to federal law enforcement. DOJ identifies Munster as a 53-year-old citizen of the Netherlands and Chief of the Virus Ecology Section at Rocky Mountain Laboratory in Hamilton, Montana. DOJ identifies Kwe as a 38-year-old citizen of Cameroon and a research fellow in Munster’s section. DOJ states that both men worked on emerging viral pathogens and cross-species transmission at a Biosafety Level 4 facility.
The charged airport event occurred on January 25, 2026, when Munster and Kwe arrived at Detroit Metropolitan Airport’s McNamara Terminal after travel originating in Brazzaville, Republic of Congo, where an mpox outbreak was occurring. CBP officers observed a large black plastic case. DOJ says Munster and Kwe falsely told CBP that the case contained diagnostics and testing equipment. CBP and FBI investigators later found 113 vials in Styrofoam coolers. At the time of the complaint, the FBI had tested 20 of the 113 vials: DOJ reported that 17 contained deactivated monkeypox virus, one contained chickenpox virus, and two contained only human DNA.
That last sentence is the hinge of the case. The public record does not yet describe full testing of all 113 vials. It describes testing of 20. The other 93 vials remain publicly unresolved. That unresolved inventory is the central audit question.
What the criminal complaint adds beyond the DOJ release
The FBI affidavit states that the complaint was based on probable cause and did not contain everything known by investigators. The affidavit describes the relevant legal frame: select-agent rules, import-permit rules, customs-declaration rules, and transport-marking rules. It states that mpox Clade I is a select agent, that nonviable select-agent materials can fall under exclusions only when documentation and certifications exist, and that importation of infectious biological agents or related materials can require permits or certification statements. It also states that articles brought into the United States must be declared to CBP, and that noninfectious samples transported by air must be marked as scientific research specimens.
IPAK-EDU is grateful to Popular Rationalism as this piece was originally published there and is included in this news feed with mutual agreement. Read More
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