A couple smuggled a fungus into Detroit Metro Airport that’s responsible for billions of dollars’ worth of damage and major health defects in humans and animals, federal officials said. They allegedly planned to work on it at a University of Michigan lab.
Yunqing Jian, 33, and Zunyong Liu, 34, were charged with conspiracy, smuggling goods into the United States, making false statements, and visa fraud, according to a release from U.S. Attorney Jerome F. Gorgon, Jr.
Jian and her boyfriend, Liu, allegedly smuggled a fungus called Fusarium graminearum into the U.S.
This noxious fungus causes “head blight,” which is a disease of wheat, barley, maize and rice and causes billions of dollars’ worth of economic losses worldwide every year, according to federal officials.
Its toxins also cause vomiting, liver damage, and reproductive defects in humans and livestock, the release says.
Jian and Liu researched the fungus in China, according to the release.
During the investigation, authorities said they learned that Liu smuggled the Fusarium graminearum through Detroit Metro Airport so that he could do research on it at a University of Michigan lab, where Jian worked.
“Today’s criminal charges levied upon Yunqing Jian and Zunyong Liu are indicative of CBP’s critical role in protecting the American people from biological threats that could devastate our agricultural economy and cause harm to humans; especially when it involves a researcher from a major university attempting to clandestinely bring potentially harmful biological materials into the United States,” said U.S. Custom and Border Protection, Director of Field Operations Marty C. Raybon.
Jian is scheduled to appear in federal court in Detroit on Tuesday afternoon.
The FBI and U.S. Customs and Border Protection are investigating the case.
