Officials allege that Liu, who works at a Chinese university where he conducts research on the same pathogen, first lied but later admitted to smuggling Fusarium graminearum through Detroit Metropolitan Airport so that he could conduct research on it at a laboratory at the University of Michigan, where Jian worked.

Two Chinese researchers were charged with smuggling a biological pathogen that they planned to study at a University of Michigan lab, a complaint says.

The biological pathogen federal authorities accuse two Chinese nationals of smuggling into the U.S. was not likely an act of "agroterrorism," according to experts.