The Justice Department announced Tuesday that two foreign researchers with the National Institutes of Health 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.

The two men, who worked at the NIH's Rocky Mountain Laboratory in Montana, claimed the case contained diagnostics and testing equipment, but a subsequent investigation by CBP and the FBI revealed it contained 113 vials in Styrofoam coolers. The FBI has tested 20 of the vials so far and 17 have contained deactivated monkeypox virus.

“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."

Both men worked for the Virus Ecology Section of the NIH's Rocky Mountain Laboratory, where they focused on “emerging viral pathogens” and how those pathogens “cross the species barrier," according to the DOJ.

Both men face up to five years in prison if convicted. 

Misty Severi is a news reporter for Just The News. You can follow her on X for more coverage.