Chinese Researcher Pleads Guilty to Smuggling Bacteria into US in Underwear Package

Youhuang Xiang, a Chinese national and former Indiana University postdoctoral researcher, has admitted to smuggling E. coli bacterial DNA into the United States by concealing them inside a package falsely labeled as women’s underwear. Xiang, 32, acknowledged that the shipment from China to his Bloomington, Indiana, residence in March 2024 contained hidden bacterial samples. The shipping manifest misleadingly declared the contents as “Underwear of Man-Made Fibers, Other Womens” to avoid U.S. customs scrutiny, according to federal prosecutors. Federal authorities revealed that Xiang, while working at Indiana University’s biology department on a J-1 non-immigrant visa, received the materials from a Chinese…