LAS VEGAS—Every morning, Raul Contreras rides his mountain bike along the quiet streets of northeast Las Vegas, passing tidy stucco homes and lawns that reflect a good quality of life.
To him, the area is a hidden gem, far from urban crime and congestion. Families thrive, kids play and go to school safely, and neighbors look out for each other.
He had no idea that one of these homes was hiding a secret that could threaten public health.
On Jan. 31, Las Vegas Metropolitan Police and SWAT teams raided the house at 979 Sugar Springs Drive, a place Contreras passes every day.
Inside the garage, they discovered a suspected biological laboratory containing a freezer, several refrigerators, a centrifuge and other specialized equipment, and over 1,000 vials and gallon-sized containers of unknown red and brown liquids.
“That’s kind of scary,” Contreras, who lives about two blocks away, told The Epoch Times. “You don’t know what the hell is in that stuff.”
“Now, you know it can happen in any neighborhood—even the quietest,” he said.
The discovery has left residents feeling unsettled and unsure. Some are asking how this suspected biolab went unnoticed, possibly as long as three years, in an active crime watch community.
A crime watch community is one in which residents partner with local law enforcement to reduce crime through increased surveillance, reporting, and, in some cases, technology.
“I feel they shouldn’t have let it go on,” said Kathy, who gave only her first name, as she walked her dog near the now-empty home.
“It’s scary. It’s really easy to operate under the radar here.”
Cody Human, who owns a tree trimming service in Las Vegas, said he and his crew had planned to work at the house next door on the day of the raid.
However, when they arrived, they saw police officers and hazmat-suited personnel throughout the property.
“If I lived in this neighborhood, I would definitely be scared,” Human told The Epoch Times as he resumed work on Feb. 3.
Authorities discovered a freezer, several refrigerators, specialized lab equipment, and more than 1,000 vials and gallon-size containers of unknown red and brown liquids in the garage while searching a house on Sugar Springs Drive in Las Vegas on Jan. 31, 2026. (FBI)
“Anything like that is scary, especially for neighborhoods like this that have kids and families,” he said.
“I mean, this neighborhood is known as a family-oriented neighborhood. You’ve got churches. This is one of the better neighborhoods. It’s very clean, very quiet.”
Meanwhile, a team of local, state, and federal investigators is working to identify the materials seized from the suspected biolab and their purpose.
“We recognize that the public is seeking clarity,” Clark County Sheriff Kevin McMahill told reporters on Feb. 2. “What were they testing for? What possibilities are being considered?”
FBI scientists and specialized evidence teams entered the garage, where they opened the refrigerators and a freezer to inspect their contents.
Some items appeared to have been used to store biological and chemical materials, McMahill said.
The joint investigation involved multiple agencies and a “layered use of technology,” including Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department drones and a robotic dog, to assess environmental conditions at the residence to limit risk of exposure to potential pathogens.
Authorities search a house on Sugar Springs Drive in Las Vegas on Jan. 31, 2026. The discovery of the suspected illegal biolab left residents uneasy, with some asking how it went unnoticed in an active crime-watch community. (FBI)
McMahill said the Sugar Springs Drive home is owned by David Destiny Discovery LLC, whose principal is David He, the same person connected to an illegal biolab shut down in Reedley, California, in 2023.
The Epoch Times previously reported that David He is the pseudonym used by Jia Bei Zhu, a Chinese national.
The Justice Department releases a photo of Jia Bei Zhu, arrested in connection with an illegal Chinese biolab in Reedley, Calif., on Oct. 19, 2023. (Department of Justice)
Investigators at the Reedley biolab found materials possibly linked to infectious diseases, including hepatitis, COVID-19, HIV, malaria, and other dangerous pathogens, McMahill said.
Police have named He as a suspect in the Las Vegas case, and said federal authorities were already holding him because of charges related to the 2023 investigation.
A second suspect, Ori Salomon, 55, a nonimmigrant foreign national, was also arrested in the Las Vegas investigation. Salomon, who also spells his surname as Solomon, manages the home on Sugar Springs Drive and a nearby house on Temple View Drive.
Police booked Salomon at the Clark County Detention Center for disposing of and releasing dangerous waste, and he was released on $3,000 bail. Salomon is also facing a federal felony charge of possession of a firearm by a prohibited person.
(Top) Bags labeled “MDMA,” “Coca,” and “Met” found in freezers at the Reedley biolab in California. “Coca” and “Met” likely refer to cocaine and methamphetamine. Other bags were labeled “THC” and “Amp” (likely amphetamine). (Bottom) Blood and other fluids discovered in two of the biolab’s 30 refrigerators and deep freezers. (City of Reedley)
His next court appearance is scheduled for March 4.
The sheriff said the Reedley investigation raised significant concerns about what local authorities might encounter at the Sugar Springs Drive property.
“While it is unknown whether similar materials were present here at the Las Vegas residence, the possibility required us to proceed with extreme caution,” McMahill said.
On Jan. 31, the FBI also executed a search warrant at the property on Temple View Drive, where several people resided, but found no illegal biological materials inside.
When police went into the property on Sugar Springs Drive, they found three people living in different rooms they were renting. These people are not involved in the current investigation, McMahill said.
In this image from a video, law enforcement officers search a house in Las Vegas on Jan. 31, 2026. (Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department via AP)
According to county documents obtained by The Epoch Times, David Destiny Discovery purchased the Sugar Springs Drive property in October 2022 from Wang Zhaoyan, who was connected to companies involved in the Reedley case.
McMahill said investigators began looking into the case a week ago after getting a tip about a possible biolab in the house.
He said the investigation is extremely complex. Investigators will move forward “carefully and methodically” until they learn more.
“This is a scary moment,” McMahill said. “I do not take that lightly. There are aspects to this investigation that we don’t know the answers to. We’re trying to be as transparent about everything we know.”
“What were they doing?” he asked. “The truth is, we don’t know yet.”
Delzotto told reporters on Feb. 2, “You’re talking about serious, serious allegations.”
“We don’t know what [the materials] are yet,” he said. “We’ll let the subject matter experts do their analysis, which will take some time, and then we’ll report back on what those results are.”
The FBI and Las Vegas police uncover an alleged illegal biological laboratory at a house in Las Vegas on Jan. 31, 2026. (FBI)
A November 2023 report from the House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party found that the Reedley lab had thousands of disease samples that were either labeled, mislabeled, or coded.
They included 1,000 specially bred mice engineered to have immune systems that work like a human system.
Lab workers said the mice were designed “to catch and carry the COVID-19 virus.”
“After local officials who discovered the lab sought help from the [Centers for Disease Control and Prevention] and others, the [Centers for Disease Control and Prevention] refused to test any of the samples,” the report summary states.
In response to the incident in Reedley, Reps. Kevin Kiley (R-Calif.), Jim Costa (D-Calif.), and David Valadao (R-Calif.) introduced the Preventing Illegal Laboratories and Protecting Public Health Act of 2025.
This bipartisan legislation aims to strengthen federal oversight of highly pathogenic agents and high-containment laboratories and protect Americans from public health and national security threats.
In a statement on Feb. 2, Kiley asked Congress to move the bill forward after the Las Vegas biolab was discovered and possibly linked to Reedley.
(Left) The property at 979 Sugar Springs Drive in Las Vegas on Feb. 3. 2026. Law enforcement raided the home on Jan. 31, 2026, after receiving a tip about suspcious activity involving unknown materials. (Right) Electrical boxes on the side of a garage where law enforcement discovered a freezer and multiple refrigerators in a suspected illegal biolab. (Allan Stein/The Epoch Times)
“This can’t keep happening,” Kiley said. “The federal government must do more to stop illegal labs from operating in our communities.”
Several residents in the Sugar Springs Drive area expressed concerns about the biolab being close to an elementary school, a high school, and the public water supply and pumping station.
“We never knew,” a mother of four young children who lives two blocks from the suspected biolab told The Epoch Times.
“All the kids walk down this street,” the mother, who asked to remain anonymous, said. “Every day, you'll see the street fill up with parents and kids—and that’s scary.”
“The first thing I said was, ‘It’s time to go.’”
