U.S. says it has arrested another Chinese researcher accused of smuggling biological material

U.S. authorities said Monday that they had arrested a Chinese researcher accused of smuggling biological material into the country, the second such case in days

U.S. authorities said Monday that they had arrested a Chinese researcher accused of smuggling biological material into the country, the second such case in days.

The FBI said in a criminal complaint that the researcher, identified as Chengxuan Han, a Chinese doctoral student at the College of Life Science and Technology at the Huazhong University of Science and Technology in Wuhan, was arrested Sunday at the airport in Detroit.

According to the complaint, since September, Han has sent four shipments from China containing concealed biological material to staff members at a laboratory at the University of Michigan, where she planned to spend a year completing a project. Officials said Han made false statements about the shipments when federal agents questioned her about them when she arrived in the United States from Shanghai.

Two Chinese nationals were charged last week after the FBI said it had been determined that one tried to smuggle a toxic fungus into the United States, also for research at the University of Michigan, it alleged. One, a researcher at the university, was arrested and remains in custody, while the other was denied entry to the United States last year and remains at large.

According to the complaint, the biological material Han is accused of smuggling — sometimes hidden between pages of a book — is related to roundworms and requires a government permit.