The FBI has reportedly launched a criminal investigation into NIH virologist Vincent Munster, one of Anthony Fauci’s top bat coronavirus researchers at the high-security Rocky Mountain Laboratories in Hamilton, Montana, after he and a colleague were caught smuggling dangerous pathogen samples.
The samples Munster and his colleague were caught with included monkeypox virus, from the Democratic Republic of Congo.
According to an explosive exclusive report from Paul Thacker, Munster and NIH lab scientist Claude Kwe Yinda were stopped during airport security screening upon their return from Africa earlier this year.
Thacker’s report comes a day after White Coat Waste first posted on X that Munster had been removed from the HHS employee directory and was reportedly suspended.
According to the report, authorities discovered a hard-shelled protective case in their luggage containing undeclared human pathogen samples collected from patients.
Monkeypox virus is classified by the Department of Health and Human Services as a “select agent” that poses a severe threat to public safety and requires strict permitting, inactivation, and shipping protocols.
Neither scientist has confirmed whether the samples were properly inactivated.
HHS has referred all questions about the case to the FBI, which is actively investigating.
“We are unable to comment as this is under investigation,” HHS spokesperson Andrew Nixon wrote in an email to Thacker. “So we will refer you to the FBI.”
Thacker reports that when he contacted the FBI about the investigation into Munster and his NIH researcher, the FBI press office replied by email, “We decline to comment.”
Hellbound and Down 