Chinese nationals accused of smuggling 'agroterrorism' fungus into US, FBI says

A Chinese national has been charged with smuggling a toxic fungus into the US, the FBI has said.

Zunyong Liu, 34, flew into Detroit Metropolitan Airport in July last year with fusarium graminearum - a pathogen which can attack wheat, barley, maize and rice, and sicken livestock and people, according to court documents. According to the FBI, the fungus is classified as a "potential agroterrorism weapon" in scientific literature, and its toxins cause vomiting, liver damage, and reproductive defects in humans and livestock.

Liu was turned away at the airport and sent back to China after changing his story during interrogation, first claiming ignorance about the samples, before admitting that he had planned to use the material for research at a University of Michigan lab where his girlfriend Yunqing Jian, 33, works as a postdoctoral fellow. The bureau said authorities found a scientific article on Liu's phone titled "Plant-Pathogen Warfare under Changing Climate Conditions".

Investigators said that a week before Liu arrived in the US, he exchanged messages with Jian, who said: "It's a pity that I still have to work for you," with her boyfriend replying: "Once this is done, everything else will be easy." In February this year, FBI agents went to Jian's lab on the University of Michigan campus and asked her whether she had been assisting Liu with the pathogen at the lab, to which she said "100% no". This came as messages between the couple from 2024 suggest that Jian was already tending to fusarium graminearum at the campus lab, where Liu previously worked, before he was caught at the Detroit airport, the FBI highlighted.

The university does not have federal permits to handle it. The institution said in a statement that it "has received no funding from the Chinese government in relation to research conducted by the accused individuals".

Jian, who expressed support for the Chinese Communist Party in a signed statement on her phone, received Chinese government funding for her work on the pathogen in China, according to the court filing. Liu, who researches the same pathogen at a Chinese university, allegedly brought it to the US "so that he could conduct research on it at the laboratory" where his girlfriend worked.

Jian and Liu were charged with conspiracy, smuggling, making false statements and visa fraud, according to United States attorney Jerome Gorgon Jr. Mr Gorgon called the allegations against the two Chinese nationals "of the gravest national security concerns".

Read more from Sky News:Mum accused of killing three with poisonous mushroomsMusk calls Trump-backed tax bill 'disgusting abomination' A spokesperson for the Chinese ministry of foreign affairs told our US partner network NBC that it was not aware of the case and that its government "has always required Chinese citizens overseas to strictly abide by local laws and regulations, while also safeguarding their legitimate rights and interests in accordance with the law". Jian, who is held in jail, is set to appear in federal court for a bond hearing on Thursday afternoon.

A lawyer who was assigned only for her initial appearance declined to comment. Since Liu is in China, with which the US has no extradition treaty, his arrest is unlikely unless he returns.

FBI director Kash Patel said in : "This case is a sobering reminder that the CCP is working around the clock to deploy operatives and researchers to infiltrate American institutions and target our food supply, which would have grave consequences... putting American lives and our economy at serious risk.

"Your FBI will continue working tirelessly to be on guard against it.".