By Taylor Romine, Andy Rose, Josh Campbell, CNN

(CNN) — Two Chinese researchers were charged with smuggling a biological pathogen that they planned to study at a University of Michigan lab last summer, a complaint filed Tuesday says.

Yunqing Jian, 33, and Zunyong Liu, 34, were charged with conspiracy to commit offense or to defraud the United States, smuggling goods into the United States, false statements and visa fraud for bringing in the fungus Fusarium graminearum from China, according to the US Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Michigan.

“The Department of Justice has no higher mission than keeping the American people safe and protecting our nation from hostile foreign actors who would do us harm,” Attorney General Pam Bondi said in a statement.

Fusarium graminearum is described as “a potential agroterrorism weapon” that can cause disease in certain plants like wheat, corn, rice and barley, and is “responsible for billions of dollars in economic loss worldwide each year,” an FBI affidavit in support of the complaint says.

“The toxins produced by Fusarium graminearum cause vomiting, liver damage, and reproductive defects in livestock and humans,” the complaint states.

The 25-page criminal complaint does not allege that the defendants – who investigators say were in a relationship – had any plans to spread the fungus beyond the laboratory. But it says Liu was aware of the restrictions on the material and deliberately hid it in a wad of tissues in his backpack.

“This type of smuggling is actually rare,” Dr. Donell Harvin, former chief of homeland security for the District of Columbia, told CNN. “Most of the time we see these cases, it’s a researcher exfiltrating or trying to remove information or materials outside the US from their research.”

Still, Harvin warned that a pathogen like Fusarium is extremely dangerous.

“It doesn’t matter whether the person had good intentions,” he said. “If there’s some type of mistake, or mishap, or release, that could have catastrophic consequences.”

The charges come as the Trump administration is looking to revoke visas for Chinese students, especially those with alleged “connections to the Chinese Communist Party or studying in critical fields,” Secretary of State Marco Rubio said last week.

The State Department has zeroed in on any potential wrongdoing from academics across the country in the last several months, including a Harvard University researcher accused of smuggling frog embryo remains.

FBI Director Kash Patel said in a post on X that the case is “a sobering reminder that the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) is working around the clock to deploy operatives and researchers to infiltrate American institutions and target our food supply, which would have grave consequences.” The affidavit doesn’t specify what Jian and Liu’s intentions were in studying the fungus.

In its ongoing battle to cut billions of dollars in federal funding and international students from Harvard – moves that have prompted two ongoing lawsuits from the school – the administration has claimed that joint research with Chinese academics on optics and aerospace amounted to “coordinating with Chinese Communist Party officials on training that undermined American national security.”

The Department of Homeland Security also cites an inquiry from three Republican congressional committee chairs saying that a series of health conferences hosted by Harvard included participation by members of a sanctioned Chinese paramilitary group accused of complicity in a genocide against China’s minority Uyghur population.

Jian, who was arrested by the FBI, remains in custody. On Thursday, her detention hearing was adjourned until 1 p.m. June 13 to allow time for a new defense attorney to get up to speed. CNN reached out to the attorney who represented Jian during her hearing on Thursday for comment.

Liu is not currently in the US, said Gina Balaya, public information officer for the US Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Michigan.

Liu, who is a researcher at Zhejiang University in China, tried to bring in multiple samples of the fungus during a trip with a tourist visa in July 2024, hiding it in his backpack inside tissues because he knew he wasn’t allowed to import it, the affidavit says.

“The tissues concealed a note in Chinese, a round piece of filter paper with a series of circles drawn on it, and four clear plastic baggies with small clumps of reddish plant material inside,” according to the affidavit.

Jian, his girlfriend, is a postdoctoral research fellow at the Molecular Plant-Microbe Interaction Laboratory at the University of Michigan and previously worked at a university in Texas since August 2022, the affidavit says. Authorities found evidence that during her time at the two universities, the Chinese government funded her research on Fusarium graminearum at Zhejiang University, the affidavit says.

Files found on Jian’s phone included a signed “annual self-assessment form” from the university, which described her research accomplishments from the previous year as well as an oath to follow the principles of the CCP, the affidavit says. Radio Free Asia previously reported on the practice, saying “tens of thousands” of Chinese students using government-backed scholarships were required to sign the document.

When Liu was questioned at the Detroit Metropolitan Airport in July 2024, he initially claimed he didn’t know what the materials containing the fungus were, but eventually admitted he intentionally hid the samples and planned to clone different strains at the University of Michigan lab where Jian worked, the affidavit says.

Several devices seized from Liu, the affidavit says, showed messages where he coordinated with Jian to smuggle biological samples and other materials for the July 2024 trip as well as for a trip two years earlier.

Additionally, the complaint accuses Jian of coordinating with another person in China to ship her illicit samples that were believed to be Fusarium graminearum last year, instructing the individual to cut filter papers into smaller pieces that could be hidden inside a thick textbook.

That shipment was intercepted by Customs and Border Protection agents and destroyed before its exact contents were determined. The person who sent it from China has not been charged with a crime.

The University of Michigan officials said in a statement Tuesday they “strongly condemn any actions that seek to cause harm, threaten national security or undermine the university’s critical public mission.” The university noted it received no funding from the Chinese government in relation to those charged.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lin Jian said during a news conference Wednesday that he wasn’t familiar with the case, but said the government “always asks Chinese nationals overseas to strictly observe local laws and regulations, and protects their legitimate and lawful rights and interests in accordance with the law.”

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CNN’s Mark Morales, Chris Boyette and Katelyn Polantz contributed to this report.