UofFL employee, students implicated in illegal plot to ship drugs, toxins to China

[Gunny]

We don't have a security problem:rolleyes:. This is absurd. Dumbass college students have access to this crap? Consider that along with current pro-terrorist college student antics.

University of Florida employee, students implicated in illegal plot to ship drugs, toxins to China (nypost.com) (https://nypost.com/2024/05/29/us-news/university-of-florida-employee-students-implicated-in-illegal-plot-to-ship-drugs-toxins-to-china/)

[SassyLady]

For a moment I thought "yay! Were sending their toxic shit back to them! "

Didn't realize it was a Chinese student sending the toxins to China so they can use against us. Hope they put her away soon.

[Kathianne]

A bit more, including poor girls whines:

https://www.wfla.com/news/florida/university-of-florida-employee-students-implicated-in-illegal-plot-to-ship-drugs-toxins-to-china/


FLORIDAUniversity of Florida employee, students implicated in illegal plot to ship drugs, toxins to China
by: The Associated Press


Posted: May 28, 2024 / 01:57 PM EDT


Updated: May 30, 2024 / 10:57 AM EDT


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A University of Florida research employee and students have been implicated in an illegal, multi-million dollar scheme investigated by the Justice Department to fraudulently buy thousands of biochemical samples of dangerous drugs and toxins that were delivered to a campus laboratory then illicitly shipped to China over seven years, according to federal court records.


Among the students tied to the scheme was the president of UF’s Chinese Students and Scholars Association. The group openly protested a Florida law signed by Gov. Ron DeSantis last year that limits universities from recruiting students and faculty from China — and bans employing such students from working in academic labs without special permission.


That student, Nongnong “Leticia” Zheng, confirmed Friday in an interview that a federal prosecutor notified her last year in writing she was the target of a grand jury investigation, and the Justice Department was preparing to seek criminal charges against her. She said she has been assigned a federal public defender, Ryan Maguire of Tampa. She said government agents have threatened to imprison or deport her.


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It wasn’t otherwise clear whether the UF research employee or other students — identified in court records as co-conspirators — been charged or arrested yet. The UF employee worked in the stockroom of one of the university’s research labs, prosecutors said.


The materials smuggled to China included what the government described as purified, non-contagious proteins of the cholera toxin and pertussis toxin, which causes whooping cough. Cholera is a generally non-fatal intestinal infection that can cause severe dehydration. Whooping cough is a highly contagious bacterial infection that can lead to violent coughing, vomiting and even respiratory distress — but is preventable with a vaccine.


Other materials smuggled to China in the scheme included small amounts of highly purified drugs – known as analytical samples — of fentanyl, morphine, MDMA, cocaine, ketamine, codeine, methamphetamine, amphetamine, acetylmorphine and methadone, court records showed. Such small samples would generally be used for calibrating scientific or medical devices.


The substances can’t legally be exported to China.


Prosecutors described one student involved as a Chinese citizen majoring in marketing in the business college last year, who agreed to change her UF email signature to falsely represent that she was a biomedical engineering student to purchase items without raising suspicions, court records showed. One line across hundreds of pages of court documents in the case cited an excerpt of an email that her first name was “Leticia.”


Zheng, a senior marketing major in the business school, is president of the Chinese students and scholars group, which describes itself as officially approved by the Chinese embassy. Zheng was enrolled as recently as the spring semester that just ended, university records showed. Fresh Take Florida, a news service of the University of Florida College of Journalism and Communications, identified “Leticia” as Zheng using biographical clues in university records shared by none of the other 58,441 UF students enrolled last semester.


Zheng, who said she lived most of her life in China, said in a tearful interview Friday at her apartment complex she was deceived and victimized by the scheme’s organizers, who she said solicited help finding paid interns from the Chinese student organization. Foreign students on educational visas are limited in how or whether they can work for pay.


“This case seems to be really big,” she said. “What I was doing was, like, just a little work, and I didn’t get paid that much.”


Zheng said in hindsight, she noticed red flags such as a lack of paperwork or consistent payments for the administrative work she did. She said she wasn’t familiar with the substances she was directed to order. The man described as the scheme’s ringleader — who has pleaded guilty in the case — reassured her, and she didn’t realize she was in trouble until the Justice Department contacted her, she said.


Zheng said she hopes to be allowed to finish her degree and said she doesn’t understand how the university didn’t have policies in place to protect her.


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“I do need help, honestly,” she said, adding: “I would like to see if there’s anything that can help me not get charged and get out of this whole mess.”