American officers caught a person who landed in the United States carrying vials of a coronavirus from China, according to documents from the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and other agencies made public on July 24.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officers found the vials of porcine epidemic diarrhea virus and antibody genetic material on a courier, whose name was redacted, during an inspection at Detroit Metropolitan Airport on Nov. 28, 2018, according to the documents.

The courier was not authorized to carry the vials, which had been obscured in carry-on baggage with a combination of paper towels and wax film, officials said. The courier said that he was given the vials by Yusen Zhou, who worked for China’s Academy of Military Medical Sciences, and that the vials were intended for Fang Li, a researcher at the University of Minnesota who has co-written papers with Zhou.

Laboratory testing from DHS and the FBI confirmed that porcine epidemic diarrhea virus spike protein was in the vials, as well as partial immunoglobulin heavy chain precursor messenger ribonucleic acid.

Porcine epidemic diarrhea virus is a highly dangerous coronavirus that causes illnesses and deaths in swine.

The attempted delivery came just one month after a student in Li’s lab offered to send live porcine epidemic diarrhea virus to an American researcher, Ralph Baric, according to emails also released on Friday.

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