Overview

• Chengxuan Han pleaded no contest on Aug. 19 to three smuggling counts and one charge of making false statements to U.S. Customs and Border Protection.
• Prosecutors say she sent multiple 2024–2025 packages from China containing concealed biological material related to roundworms to people linked to a University of Michigan laboratory.
• CBP officers at Detroit Metropolitan Airport questioned Han on June 8 and reported she lied about the shipments; they also noted her device had been wiped three days before arrival.
• Following the border inspection, FBI and ICE Homeland Security Investigations interviewed Han, who admitted sending the packages and acknowledged the false statements; authorities described such smuggling as a public safety and national security concern.
• Han had been invited as a visiting scholar at the University of Michigan’s Life Sciences Institute with planned pay of more than $41,000, and she faces maximum penalties of 20 years for smuggling and 5 years for false statements.