Federal prosecutors said the shipment from China was disguised as clothing, and the plea deal calls for the researcher’s removal from the United States.
INDIANAPOLIS, IN — A former Indiana University postdoctoral researcher has been sentenced to more than four months in prison after admitting he smuggled E. coli DNA from China into the United States in a package listed on customs forms as women’s underwear, federal prosecutors said.
The case matters because it sits at the intersection of border security, university research and federal rules on importing biological materials. Prosecutors said Youhuang Xiang, 32, used a false shipping label to get the material into the country without the permits and disclosures required by law. The guilty plea ended a monthslong federal case and cleared the way for his removal to China, while also raising broader questions about oversight of research materials sent through ordinary commercial channels.
Xiang came to the United States in June 2023 on a J-1 visa to work as a postdoctoral researcher in Indiana University Bloomington’s biology department. According to court records described by prosecutors, the package at the center of the case arrived at his Bloomington home in March 2024. It came from Guangzhou Sci-Tech Innovation Trading in China and was declared on the shipping manifest as “Underwear of Man-Made Fibers, Other Womens.” Federal investigators later said the label stood out because the sender appeared to be a science-focused company, not a clothing business. The case moved into public view in late 2025, after the FBI began looking into suspicious shipments from China tied to people affiliated with Indiana University. On Nov. 23, 2025, U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers questioned Xiang at Chicago O’Hare International Airport as he returned from a research trip in the United Kingdom. Prosecutors said he first denied any knowledge of smuggling, then admitted the package had been intentionally mislabeled and that DNA from E. coli had been hidden inside to avoid detection.
Federal officials described the imported material as biologic material and E. coli DNA. Court coverage from Bloomington said the material at issue was plasmid DNA, a small circular DNA molecule commonly used in laboratory research. That distinction has shaped some of the public debate around the case, but it did not erase the core allegation that the shipment was deliberately disguised to bypass customs screening and permit requirements. Prosecutors said Xiang told officers he knew a permit was needed and did not obtain one. They also said his J-1 visa was terminated immediately after the airport interview and that the FBI arrested him soon afterward. In the criminal case, Xiang had originally faced three felony counts: smuggling goods into the United States, conspiracy to commit smuggling and making false statements. He ultimately pleaded guilty to one smuggling count. During sentencing, federal prosecutors also said investigators found evidence that Xiang was a member of the Chinese Communist Party and that he had lied to immigration authorities about that affiliation. His defense and some academic supporters have argued the case overstated the danger of the material and reflected broader suspicion toward Chinese scholars, but the plea itself resolved the charge that he knowingly brought the material into the country through deception.
The facts of the shipment are unusually specific, and that helped make the case travel quickly beyond Indiana. The manifest’s reference to women’s underwear became the detail that drew broad attention, but the deeper issue for investigators was the path the package took into the country and how it was described on federal forms. Import rules for organisms and related biological material exist so customs and agriculture officials can inspect what is entering the United States and decide whether permits, restrictions or other safeguards apply. Prosecutors argued that a mislabeled shipment defeats that review process. They said Xiang’s work at Indiana University included research connected to crop science and genome editing in wheat, adding another layer of federal concern because agencies such as the U.S. Department of Agriculture help police threats to agriculture as well as public health. Federal officials used strong language in public statements, saying the conduct threatened the agricultural economy and public safety. At the same time, local reporting from the courthouse added scientific context by noting that plasmid DNA itself is not the same thing as an infectious live bacterial sample. That tension, between the legal issue of concealment and the scientific question of what exactly was imported, became one of the case’s central points.
Chief U.S. District Judge James R. Sweeney II imposed the sentence after a hearing on April 7, 2026. Prosecutors later announced that Xiang had been sentenced to more than four months in prison, fined $500 and ordered to serve one year of supervised release. Under the plea agreement, they said, he also agreed to a judicial order of removal that would result in his immediate deportation to China. By pleading guilty to one count, Xiang avoided trial on the remaining counts, and the government avoided a longer fight over the scientific and factual details that might have surfaced in open court. The FBI, Customs and Border Protection, and the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Office of Inspector General all took part in the investigation, showing that the case was treated as more than a narrow customs violation. Federal prosecutors said the next formal step is his transfer for immigration removal under the court order. No further criminal hearing was immediately expected after sentencing, though removal logistics and federal custody can still affect timing.
Even in a case built on shipping forms, airport questioning and laboratory terms, the courtroom scene remained personal. Indiana Daily Student reporters described Xiang appearing in court in restraints as the case came to a close. Federal officials used the moment to send a warning. U.S. Attorney Tom Wheeler said the conduct bypassed the inspection system meant to keep harmful biological materials from entering the country. FBI Indianapolis Special Agent in Charge Timothy J. O’Malley said concealing E. coli to avoid detection showed disregard for the law and for safety. Outside the government, some faculty advocates and academic groups cast the prosecution in starkly different terms, saying it fit a larger climate of scrutiny aimed at Chinese researchers in the United States. That disagreement did not change the legal outcome, but it did shape the public reaction. For prosecutors, the story was about concealment, customs law and research security. For critics, it was also about whether federal officials had turned a permit violation involving research material into a broader national security narrative.
The case now stands at its endpoint in criminal court: Xiang has pleaded guilty, been sentenced and faces removal from the country. The next milestone is the execution of that removal order, which prosecutors said would follow immediately under the plea agreement.
Author note: Last updated April 15, 2026.