US reports another arrest of Chinese scientist with no permit to send biological material
A Chinese scientist was arrested while arriving in the U.S. at the Detroit airport, the second case in days involving the alleged smuggling of biological material, authorities said Monday.
The scientist is accused of shipping biological material months ago to staff at a laboratory at the University of Michigan. The FBI, in a court filing, described it as material related to certain worms and requires a government permit.
'The guidelines for importing biological materials into the U.S. for research purposes are stringent, but clear, and actions like this undermine the legitimate work of other visiting scholars,' said John Nowak, who leads field operations at U.S. Customs and Border Protection.
The scientist was interviewed and arrested Sunday after arriving on a flight from China, where she is pursuing an advanced degree at Huazhong University of Science and Technology in Wuhan. She planned to spend a year completing a project at the University of Michigan.
Her shipments, including an envelope stuffed inside a book, were intercepted last year and earlier this year and opened by authorities, the FBI said.
The court filing doesn't indicate whether the FBI believes the biological material was dangerous, though U.S. Attorney Jerome Gorgon Jr. said smuggling "threatens our security."
The government last week charged two Chinese scientists who are accused of conspiring to smuggle a toxic fungus into the U.S. One was turned around at the Detroit airport and sent back to China last year, while the other, a researcher at the University of Michigan, was arrested. She remains in custody.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Reuters
an hour ago
- Reuters
Taiwan cyber unit says it will not be intimidated by China bounty offer
TAIPEI, June 12 (Reuters) - Taiwan's cyber forces will not be intimidated by China's threats of a bounty for the arrest of 20 people Beijing says are Taiwanese military hackers, and China's legal system has no jurisdiction on the island, its defence ministry said. China views democratically-governed Taiwan as its own territory and has over the past five years increased its military and political pressure against the island. Taiwan's government rejects Beijing's sovereignty claims. Last week, the public security bureau in the Chinese city of Guangzhou said the hackers were part of the Taiwan military's Information, Communications and Electronic Force Command, and published their pictures, names and Taiwan identity card numbers, offering rewards of more than $1,000 for their arrest. On Wednesday, China's Taiwan Affairs Office said the government will "pursue the matter to the end, and will not be lenient", using legal channels to "crack down" on their activities. Late Wednesday, Taiwan's defence ministry's electronic force command said China was continuing to use "fictitious cyber hacking incidents to distort the facts" and offering cross-border rewards. According to Taiwan's constitution, China's communist party has no legal jurisdiction over the island and its laws have "no real binding force" on Taiwan's people, it said in a statement. "The Chinese communists have invoked their domestic laws and regulations to systematically manipulate public opinion, with the intention of creating long arm jurisdiction and undermining the morale of our military," it added. "The officers and soldiers of the Information, Communications and Electronic Force Command will not be affected by this, and will continue to defend the digital frontier and ensure national security through the solid defence of information." Taiwan has repeatedly accused China of staging not only widespread hacking attacks against it, but also of spreading fake news via social media and other means to undermine confidence in the government.
Reuters
2 hours ago
- Reuters
Ex-CIA analyst sentenced to over 3 years for leak of classified information
WASHINGTON, June 11 (Reuters) - A former CIA analyst who pleaded guilty in January over a leak of classified Israeli plans to strike Iran was sentenced to 37 months in prison on Wednesday, the U.S. Department of Justice said. In pleading guilty, Asif William Rahman, who had worked at the U.S. intelligence agency since 2016, acknowledged that he illegally downloaded, printed and distributed classified information on multiple occasions, including several in 2024. U.S. ally Israel and its regional rival Iran were in the midst of high tensions at the time and exchanged some blows. Israel at the time was preparing to strike some Iranian sites in retaliation for a ballistic missile attack that the Iranian government said was a response to Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh's assassination by Israel in Tehran. Rahman had a "Top Secret" security clearance with access to Sensitive Compartmented Information (SCI) until his employment was terminated after his arrest in late 2024. The documents, which entailed plans by Israel to strike Iran, later appeared online after a pro-Iranian Telegram account called "Middle East Spectator" published them. Rahman, 34, is from Vienna, Virginia, and was arrested in Cambodia, according to court records. "Asif Rahman violated his position of trust by illegally accessing, removing, and transmitting Top Secret documents vital to the national security of the United States and its allies," Erik Siebert, U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia, said on Wednesday.
Reuters
2 hours ago
- Reuters
Lawyers for man mistakenly deported from US say he should be freed while DOJ pursues new charges
June 11 (Reuters) - Lawyers for Kilmar Abrego Garcia, who was mistakenly deported to El Salvador in March and returned on Friday, said their client should be set free while the U.S. Department of Justice pursues new criminal charges against him. The U.S. Department of Justice on Friday had asked a federal judge in Tennessee to detain Abrego Garcia while he is prosecuted on newly-filed charges of transporting illegal immigrants within the United States. The motion filed on Wednesday said Abrego Garcia had already been imprisoned without due process and he posed no danger to the community and no flight risk. 'Mr. Abrego Garcia asks the Court for what he has been denied the past several months – due process,' Abrego Garcia's attorneys wrote in Wednesday's court filing. 'Mr. Abrego Garcia must be released.' Abrego Garcia on March 15 was deported to El Salvador, despite a 2019 immigration court ruling that he should not be sent there because he could be persecuted by gangs, and the incident has become a flashpoint for Republican President Donald Trump's aggressive immigration policies. The Trump administration has said Abrego Garcia was a member of the MS-13 gang, an accusation his lawyers deny. Trump administration officials have accused the judiciary of interfering with the executive branch's ability to conduct foreign policy, and they portrayed Abrego Garcia's criminal indictment as vindication for their approach to deportations. A grand jury in Nashville, Tennessee, on May 21 indicted him on charges of transporting undocumented migrants from the U.S.-Mexico border to locations around the country. Abrego Garcia remains detained pending his next court hearing on Friday. His lawyer Simon Sandoval-Moshenberg has called the criminal charges "fantastical" and a "kitchen sink" of allegations.
