Weaponizing farm fields from Illinois and across the U.S. tonight is "a growing threat" demanding law enforcement attention, according to terrorism experts.
This week, rare charges have been filed against two Chinese nationals, accused of smuggling fungus into the Midwest with the aim of infecting farmland.
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WATCH HEREFarm fields were to become the new battlefields targeted by the suspects in the case, according to federal law enforcement officials who say the couple smuggled a noxious fungus into the U.S. intending to use it as a "potential agroterrorism weapon."
Thirty-three-year old University of Michigan employee Yunqing Jian is in custody in Detroit, being held without bond while her 34-year-old boyfriend Dr. Zunyong Liu is a fugitive in China where he works at a Chinese university.
They are accused of flying to the U.S. carrying fungus in small plastic bags, aiming to use the fungus to infect farm fields from the ground up.
"It is intended to disrupt the food chain,” says University of Illinois-Chicago public health professor Dr. Jerrald Leikin.
Leikin says farm animals and people would have become sick had this plot been carried out, and he says the plot involved Soviet-era micro toxins apparently obtained by the Chinese government.
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“This can result in literally billions of dollars in trying to find out where the source is, in addition to segregating or quarantining these animals and or food products and grains in this way,” Leikin says. “So, it can cause a massive disruption of the food process in both quarantining aspect and the identification aspect.”
“Is it unusual for somebody to actually be charged like this?," NBC 5 Investigates' Chuck Goudie asked.
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SIGN UP “Yes, it is very unusual for someone to be charged at the level of bacteria or fungus that would supposedly be introduced at the grower level," Leikin responded. "This type of food poisoning would be very, very difficult to detect that we at the physician level in most hospitals would not be able to detect this very easily."
Investigators say the woman charged is a "loyal member of the Chinese Communist Party." Her boyfriend, they say, lied about smuggling a toxic pathogen through Detroit’s airport because he allegedly wanted to do research on it at University of Michigan. The university Tuesday issued a statement that "strongly condemns any actions that seek to cause harm, threaten national security or undermine the university’s critical public mission."
School officials say they get no money from the Chinese government. But U.S. investigators believe the Chinese do underwrite their own nationals to attempt these attacks.
