Two Chinese researchers are accused of trying to smuggle in the fungus, which causes Fusarium head blight that can wipe out crops such as wheat, barley and maize and rice.

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.

Two Chinese researchers were charged with smuggling a fungus classified “as a potential agroterrorism weapon” that could decimate crops and impact human health into the US last summer in a wad of tissues,