For the second time this month, federal officials have announced the arrest of a Chinese researcher who sought to bring biological material into Michigan.
Chengxuan Han has been charged with smuggling goods into the United States and false statements, United States Attorney Jerome F. Gorgon, Jr. said Monday, according to a Department of Justice news release.
The news release noted that Han is based in Wuhan, the epicenter of the COVID-19 outbreak, where she is a researcher at the College of Life Science and Technology in the Huazhong University of Science and Technology.
On Sunday, Customs and Border Protection officers at Detroit Metropolitan Airport detained Han, who allegedly lied about shipments of biological material she had earlier sent to a laboratory at the University of Michigan.
Inspectors found the contents of Han’s electronic device was deleted only three days before her arrival.
During interviews with the FBI and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Homeland Security Investigations, Han admitted to sending what the release called “biological material related to round worms” and lying to CBP officers.
“The alleged smuggling of biological materials by this alien from a science and technology university in Wuhan, China — to be used at a University of Michigan laboratory — is part of an alarming pattern that threatens our security. The American taxpayer should not be underwriting a PRC-based smuggling operation at one of our crucial public institutions,” Gorgon said.
“The FBI has zero tolerance for those who violate federal law and remains unwavering in our mission to protect the American people,” said Cheyvoryea Gibson, Special Agent in Charge of the FBI Detroit Field Office. “The alleged smuggling of biological materials by Chengxuan Han is a direct threat to public safety and national security, and it severely compromises the integrity of our nation’s research institutions.”
The University of Michigan had invited Han to be a visiting scholar at a lab there.
Among multiple packages Han sent to America, one was to an active member of the lab; another was sent to a member of the faculty and staff at the college, according to the Detroit Free Press.
According to a court filing, Han initially said, she sent “nematode growth medium (NGM) (in the petri dishes) and plasmids (in the envelope).”
Because NGM is cheap and easy to obtain in the U.S., an FBI agent wrote in an affidavit that the claim was doubtful.
In the end, Han admitted sending plasmids and petri dishes of C. elegans (a type of nematode worm) from Wuhan.
Although Han was supposedly a researcher, she had been denied a visa twice in March, court documents said, according to the New York Post.
In one effort to enter the U.S., Han “could not clearly answer basic questions about herself or her research,” court documents said.
Last week, federal officials charged Yunqing Jian, 33, and her boyfriend, Zunyong Liu, 34, with conspiracy, smuggling goods into the country, false statements, and visa fraud.
They were accused of trying to bring into the country a fungus that causes a disease in grain crops that Jian would allegedly research at a University of Michigan lab.
Jian is currently being detained.
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