Vincent Munster, chief of the virus ecology section at Rocky Mountain Laboratories in Hamilton, Montana, and his colleague Claude Kwe were charged with smuggling vials of deactivated mpox virus into the United States from Africa. They were stopped at Detroit Metropolitan Airport in January after returning from the Republic of Congo, where an mpox outbreak has resulted in over 2,000 deaths. Despite Munster's denial of carrying biological materials, tests confirmed the presence of the virus. The FBI stated that their failure to declare the vials constituted a breach of public trust and could have endangered public safety. Munster claimed that necessary documentation was on his laptop, but investigators deemed his statements materially false. The National Institutes of Health, which oversees the lab, is cooperating with the investigation. The case remains under scrutiny as the scientists prepare for a court appearance in Missoula, Montana.