On Tuesday federal authorities announced that Yunqing Jian, 33, and Zunyong Liu, 34, had been charged with conspiracy, smuggling goods into the United States, false statements, and visa fraud.

The FBI arrested Jian in connection with allegations related to Jian’s and Liu’s smuggling into America a fungus called Fusarium graminearum, which scientific literature classifies as a potential agroterrorism weapon. This noxious fungus causes “head blight,” a disease of wheat, barley, maize, and rice, and is responsible for billions of dollars in economic losses worldwide each year. Fusarium graminearum’s toxins cause vomiting, liver damage, and reproductive defects in humans and livestock. //

According to the complaint, Jian received Chinese government funding for her work on this pathogen in China, and a January 2024 work assessment form found on her phone, which she signed, contained a pledge of loyalty to China and to "support the leadership of the Communist Party of China, resolutely implement the party’s educational guidelines and policies, love education, care for students, unite colleagues, love the motherland and care about international affairs."

When customs agents at Detroit Metropolitan Airport found baggies containing various strains of the fungus in his luggage Liu at first denied they were his, according to the complaint. Eventually he admitted they were his and told agents what they were, and that he planned to clone them and make more samples if his experiments failed.