Overview

• Chengxuan Han was arrested June 8 at Detroit Metropolitan Airport, joining Yunqing Jian and Zunyong Liu in facing charges of smuggling biological materials into the United States.
• Authorities allege the trio concealed samples of Fusarium graminearum— the fungus behind fusarium head blight—inside shoes, filter paper and mailed shipments bound for a University of Michigan laboratory.
• The FBI has described the pathogen as a potential agroterrorism weapon that could reduce cereal crop yields and pose public health risks through mycotoxin contamination.
• Agricultural experts note Fusarium graminearum has been endemic in the US for over a century and argue the case may reflect evasion of import permits rather than a novel security threat.
• Investigators are probing possible state involvement and searching for additional co-conspirators to determine whether the smuggling was directed by foreign actors or driven by regulatory shortcuts.