(NewsNation) — A detention hearing is taking place in Michigan on Thursday for Yunqing Jian, a Chinese scientist who was caught smuggling a pathogen into the U.S. last year.

Jian and his girlfriend, Zunyong Liu, were charged by the FBI earlier this week with conspiracy, smuggling, making false statements and visa fraud.

The FBI says Liu tried to sneak Fusarium graminearum into the country but was turned away and sent back to China after changing her story during an interrogation about red plant material discovered in his backpack.

Jian and Liu had exchanged messages suggesting that Jian was already tending to the toxic fungus at a University of Michigan lab before Liu, a lab researcher at the university, was caught at the Detroit airport.

The university does not have federal permits to

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