You're aware of a domestic black market in roundworms?

Sigh. "Those folks" meaning the black market pet importers in my hypothetical - not the UM researchers. The point I'm making is that not everyone who violates animal import control laws has to be one of either: i) hapless innocent who has violated it by inadvertence; or ii) bioterrorist. So that if I point out, "huh, no indication these people at UM were bioterrorists" that does not mean that they have to be hapless innocents. They might have been deliberately violating the animal control laws - just not for terrorism.

I get that it's fun and all to argue semantics to such a degree that the debate devolves into What The Definition Of Is Is but I think the larger picture around people not smuggling things into the United States that they shouldn't - especially from China - is by far the more interesting thing to discuss.

I mean - maybe? Again, these folks were all actual biological researchers who were scholars at a research university doing biological research. The simplest explanation is probably the most plausible one - these guys genuinely wanted the roundworms so they could do research on them, and it was easier (they thought) to just smuggle them in rather than follow proper channels (if proper channels exist). Not that they intended to commit any kind of bioterrorism or use them as a bioweapon.