Russian Harvard scientist Kseniia Petrova 'knowingly' smuggled illicit items to US: feds

The Trump administration alleged that Russia scientist Kseniia Petrova "knowingly broke the law" when she brought undeclared items back into the United States.

Her attorney, Gregory Romanovsky, told Fox News that Petrova was bringing back frog embryos at the request of a professor at a French lab with which the Ivy League university was collaborating. According to Romanovsky, the sample was picked up in Paris and was supposed to be brought to Harvard and that Petrova was unaware she needed to claim them at customs. Sarah Rumpf-Whitten is a U.S. Writer at Fox News Digital.

"The individual was lawfully detained after lying to federal officers about carrying substances into the country," the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) wrote in a post on X on Tuesday. "A subsequent K9 inspection uncovered undeclared petri dishes, containers of unknown substances, and loose vials of embryonic frog cells, all without proper permits." Sarah joined FOX in 2021, where she has assisted on coverage of breaking and major news events across the US and around the world, including the fallout following the "Defund the police" movement, the assassination attempts on President Donald Trump's life and illegal immigration.

The feds said messages found on the 30-year-old's phone revealed she planned to smuggle the materials through customs without declaring them.  She has experience reporting on topics including crime, politics, business, lifestyle, world news and more. You can follow her on Twitter and LinkedIn.