A Las Vegas house suspected of containing an illegal biological laboratory was raided on Jan. 31. The house is linked to a similar biolab in California that was operated by Chinese nationals and raided two years ago, authorities confirmed on Feb. 2.
Detectives proceeded with extreme caution as they collected hundreds of samples inside the makeshift lab, fearing that they could contain HIV, malaria, or other potentially dangerous pathogens similar to what was found at the previous site, Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Sheriff Kevin McMahill told reporters.
“The nature of the earlier investigation raised significant concern about what we might uncover in this new case,” McMahill said.
Investigators were tipped off a week ago that the home was owned by a Chinese national who was in federal custody on charges related to an illegal biolab found in Reedley, California, in 2023, McMahill said.
The man also owned another house on a nearby street. That home was searched and did not contain any suspected biological materials, according to the FBI.
Two SWAT teams found three people inside the main house on Sugar Springs Drive in northeast Las Vegas.
Police detained Ori Solomon, 55, who faces state charges related to improper disposal of hazardous waste. Solomon was allegedly the house manager of both properties, McMahill said.
It is unknown whether Solomon has any expertise in biology or is a trained biologist, according to the FBI.
Special hazardous materials teams searched the house using drones and a robot dog to test and sample the air, transmitting results in real time before investigators entered the garage.
Once inside, they found refrigerators, a freezer, and several unknown containers.
More than 1,000 samples were collected and sent to FBI testing facilities, officials reported.
“This is an extremely complex investigation,” McMahill said.
A federal investigation has been opened in the case and federal charges could be added, according to the FBI’s Christopher Devato.
The property has been cleared and tested, leaving “zero threat” to the public, according to the sheriff.
The home is owned by David Destiny Discovery LLC, according to the Clark County Assessor’s Office.
David Destiny Discovery LLC was registered in Nevada under the name David He, the same name as the pseudonym used by Jia Bei Zhu, who was arrested in October 2023 in connection with the illegal biolab in Reedley, California.
Zhu is a Chinese citizen who formerly lived in Clovis, California. In 2023, he was charged with manufacturing and distributing medical devices in violation of the federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act and for making false statements to the Food and Drug Administration, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
The DOJ released a photo of Jia Bei Zhu, one of the people arrested in connection with the illegal Chinese biolab in Reedley, Calif., on Oct. 19. 2023. (DOJ)
According to court documents, Zhu and others allegedly manufactured, imported, sold, and distributed hundreds of thousands of COVID-19 test kits and HIV, pregnancy, clinical urinalysis, and other kits in the United States and China.
Their companies—Universal Meditech Inc. and Prestige Biotech Inc.—were based in Fresno and Reedley.
The U.S. House Select Committee on the CCP issued an investigation report on the Reedley biolab, finding that the lab contained thousands of samples of labeled, unlabeled, and encoded potential pathogens, including HIV, malaria, tuberculosis, and COVID-19.
The illegal lab also contained a freezer labeled “Ebola.” Ebola has a lethality rate of between 25 percent and 90 percent, according to the report.
The lab also had nearly 1,000 transgenic mice, genetically engineered to mimic the human immune system.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention did not test any of the samples recovered from the lab, according to the report.
Rep. Jim Costa (D-Calif.) said the Las Vegas biolab raid reinforces his concerns about gaps in federal oversight.
Correction: A previous version of this article misspelled the name of Jia Bei Zhu. The Epoch Times regrets the error.
