Vials Seized at Airport Not Hazardous
2002-08-03

Category Overseas Chinese Event Chinese Scholar Arrest Case China-U.S.

SYRACUSE, N.Y. - Vials of a suspicious substance found in the luggage of a Cornell University researcher traveling to China contained non-hazardous material, the FBI said Wednesday.

Further tests were planned to determine if the biological material was stolen from the school, said Phil Looney, the special FBI agent in charge in Syracuse.

Yin Qingqiang, 38, and his wife, Zheng Quihong, 36, were arrested Sunday at Hancock International Airport when security workers found more than 100 glass vials and containers of an unknown substance. Both had expired Chinese passports.

Yin, a postdoctoral research associate, was charged with conspiracy to defraud the government because he had been working on a federally funded project.

Zheng was charged with endangering a child - the couple's 4-year-old daughter - because leaking vials were found in the girl's carry-on bag.

Cornell officials say Yin was helping develop a livestock nutritional supplement that is not yet patented but could be worth millions of dollars.

Prosecutors say Yin was seeking a job in his native China and was offering to bring back ingredients for the supplement after Cornell didn't rehire him. He remained jailed Wednesday, awaiting a detention hearing. AP