Chinese researcher on US visa pleads guilty to smuggling E. coli into the country

A Chinese researcher was sentenced to much than 4 months successful situation aft pleading blameworthy to smuggling Escherichia coli (E. coli) into the United States, national prosecutors announced Tuesday.

Youhuang Xiang, 32, a erstwhile Indiana University postdoctoral researcher and Chinese national, admitted to concealing E. coli DNA successful a shipment from China that was falsely labeled arsenic women’s underwear, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Indiana.

Prosecutors said the FBI besides uncovered grounds that Xiang was a subordinate of the Chinese Communist Party and had lied astir that affiliation to migration authorities. Authorities said the lawsuit raises concerns astir nationalist information and the integrity of federally funded research.

"Such behaviour poses a precise superior menace to nationalist information and to the wellness of our cultivation economy," U.S. Attorney Tom Wheeler said.

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Split representation of E. coli bacteria illustration successful a laboratory and Chinese researcher Youhuang Xiang (iStock; FBI Indianapolis)

Authorities said Xiang received the bundle astatine his Bloomington, Indiana, residence successful March 2024 aft it was shipped from a China-based institution and mislabeled connected the manifest to debar detection.

According to tribunal documents, the FBI’s Indianapolis Division began investigating suspicious shipments from China to individuals affiliated with Indiana University successful November 2025. Agents determined that Xiang had received a shipment from Guangzhou Sci-Tech Innovation Trading that was declared arsenic "Underwear of Man-Made Fibers, Other Womens." Investigators recovered the shipment unusual, fixed the company’s absorption connected subject and exertion products.

He was aboriginal stopped by U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers astatine Chicago O’Hare International Airport successful November 2025 upon his instrumentality from a probe travel to the United Kingdom. Authorities said helium initially denied cognition of the shipment earlier admitting the contents had intentionally concealed samples of DNA of E. coli bacteria, according to tribunal documents.

E. coli is simply a bacteria that lives successful the gut but tin origin superior unwellness if harmful strains spread.

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Chinese President Xi Jinping waves during a gathering with Vietnam's communist enactment wide caput To Lam astatine the Office of the Party Central Committee successful Hanoi connected April 14, 2025. (Nhac Nguyen/AFP)

"Those who effort to secretly bring biologic materials into the United States are taking a superior hazard with nationalist safety," FBI Indianapolis Special Agent successful Charge Timothy J. O’Malley said.

A national justice sentenced Xiang to much than 4 months successful prison, on with a good and supervised release, and ordered his removal from the United States pursuing his sentence.

"This Chinese Communist Party subordinate exploited a federally funded probe grant… to smuggle unsafe biologic worldly into the United States," USDA Inspector General John Walk said.

The lawsuit is portion of a broader signifier of caller prosecutions involving overseas researchers accused of smuggling biologic materials into the U.S.

In November, national prosecutors charged 3 Chinese nationals with conspiring to smuggle biologic materials into the U.S. portion moving astatine the University of Michigan’s Shawn Xu Laboratory, alleging they made mendacious statements to customs officials to bring successful roundworm-related materials from China.

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Visa applicants enactment up astatine the U.S. embassy successful China. (Mark Ralston/AFP/Getty Images)

Authorities said the suspects were participating successful J-1 visa programs and allegedly received concealed shipments from a China-based researcher who had antecedently been convicted of akin offenses and removed from the U.S.

In a abstracted lawsuit successful February 2025, a Russian-born Harvard researcher was detained astatine Boston Logan International Airport for allegedly smuggling frog embryos into the state without due permits. Authorities said the materials were discovered aft the idiosyncratic initially denied carrying biologic substances. She was aboriginal released from national custody portion the lawsuit proceeds.