INDIANAPOLIS (WRTV) \u2014 A former Indiana University researcher was sentenced to more than four months in prison for smuggling E. coli DNA from China.<\/p>\n
Youhuang Xiang, 32, of China pleaded guilty to the charges. He also received a $500 fine and supervised release.<\/p>\n
United States Attorney\u2019s Office of Southern District of Indiana said Xiang will immediately be removed from the United States under a judicial order.<\/p>\n
Xiang held a Ph.D. from the Chinese Academy of Sciences. He came to IU Bloomington in June 2023 on a J-1 visa to conduct postdoctoral research in the biology department.<\/p>\n
The FBI Indianapolis Division began investigating suspicious shipments from China to IU affiliates in November 2025, according to court documents.<\/p>\n
Agents determined Xiang received a suspicious package at his Bloomington home in March 2024. The package came from Guangzhou Sci-Tech Innovation Trading.<\/p>\n
The shipping manifest declared the contents as \u201cUnderwear of Man-Made Fibers, Other Womens.\u201d Investigators found it unusual that Xiang was ordering women\u2019s underwear from a science and technology company.<\/p>\n
Customs and Border Protection officials interviewed Xiang at Chicago O\u2019Hare International Airport on November 23, 2025. He was returning from a research trip in the United Kingdom.<\/p>\n
Xiang initially denied knowledge of smuggling. He later admitted the shipping manifest was intentionally mislabeled, according to court documents.<\/p>\n
Samples of E. coli bacteria DNA were concealed in the package to circumvent U.S. law, officials said.<\/p>\n
CBP immediately terminated Xiang\u2019s J-1 visa and he was arrested by the FBI.<\/p>\n
The FBI investigation revealed Xiang was a member of the Chinese Communist Party, court documents revealed. Officals said he lied about his CCP affiliation when questioned by immigration authorities during his April 7 sentencing hearing.<\/p>\n
\u201cXiang intentionally exploited his access to laboratory facilities at one of Indiana\u2019s flagship research universities,\u201d said U.S. Attorney Tom Wheeler. \u201cSuch conduct poses a very serious threat to public safety and to the health of our agricultural economy.\u201d<\/p>\n
Wheeler said customs laws exist to protect borders, the economy and citizens.<\/p>\n
\u201cThose who attempt to secretly bring biological materials into the United States are taking a serious risk with public safety,\u201d said FBI Indianapolis Special Agent in Charge Timothy J. O\u2019Malley.<\/p>\n
The FBI Indianapolis Division, U.S. Customs and Border Protection, and the U.S. Department of Agriculture Office of Inspector General investigated the case.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"INDIANAPOLIS (WRTV) \u2014 A former Indiana University researcher was sentenced to more than four months in prison for…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":576728,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[23,3,21,19,22,20,25,24],"class_list":["post-576727","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-united-states","tag-america","tag-news","tag-united-states","tag-united-states-of-america","tag-unitedstates","tag-unitedstatesofamerica","tag-us","tag-usa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/576727","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=576727"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/576727\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/576728"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=576727"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=576727"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=576727"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}