A biolab was found in Vegas. What officials are saying about its ties to Reedley

Anyone doing a Google records search could make that connection, Reedley City Manager Nicole Zieba said Tuesday at a podium flanked by the city’s mayor and the entirety of the Fresno County Board of Supervisors along with the sheriff and public health director, among others. 

 

“We are not surprised,” Zieba said. 

 

But they are alarmed. 

 

The news conference came in response to questions from the public regarding the Las Vegas case, in which a 51-year-old property manager was arrested for discharging hazardous waste. 

 

And also, the status or the Reedley lab, which closed three years ago after a city code inspector discovered the warehouse contained dozens of freezers and refrigerators full of various bacterial, viral and parasitic agents including COVID-19, chlamydia, E. coli, streptococcus, Hepatitis B and C, human herpes, HIV (the virus that causes AIDS), rubella and malaria.

 

And also 1,000 transgenic (gene-altered) mice.

 

“There are a lot of people who missed it the first time around,” Zieba said. 

 

They are wondering if there is still a public health risk. 

 

To be clear: The warehouse, at 850 I Street, is secure. 

 

It has been red-tagged by the city, meaning it is under surveillance and no one is allowed in or out without prior consent, Zieba said. While the city was not privy to the contents of a warrant the FBI used to search the property on Sunday, Ziebe said the warehouse was cleared and closed in 2023. The only remaining items were boxes of paperwork and pallets-worth of medical test kits (pregnancy and COVID tests) the city did not have authority to destroy. 

 

After Sunday, the only thing remaining in the warehouse are the medial kits, which remain under state control, she said. 

 

If there is a threat, it expands beyond the two labs and two cities. 

 

“I’ve been ringing the alarm since 2023,” Rep. Jim Costa, D-Fresno said in a news release Tuesday. 

 

Costa joined the news conference via video from Washington D.C. and used the opportunity to stump for H.R. 5747, a bipartisan bill he introduced to “strengthen federal oversight of high-containment labs” and provide “the tools to identify and shut down illegal operations.” A similar bill, H.R. 3099 or the STOP Health Threats Act, would “equip local first responders and law enforcement with training and resources to better recognize and respond to serious public health threats.” 

 

Both bills have been referred to a subcommittee. 

 

On Monday, congressman Kevin Kiley (R-CA) pushed for a hearing on H.R. 5747, saying in a news release that the federal government “must do more to stop illegal labs from operating in our communities.” 

 

“This can’t keep happening.” 

 

The city of Fresno and Fresno County both adopted ordinances designed to regulate private laboratories that handle infectious and other medical materials. But the Reedley lab exposed serious gaps in federal oversight and response and proved the need for federal over site, Supervisor Nathan Magsig said. 

 

In the Las Vegas case, there was a SWAT raid on the home that was accompanied by the FBI and followed with a Joint Terrorism Task Force response. According to reporting from USA Today, thousands of pieces evidence were collected, including “biological material and liquids that were meticulously collected and sent to FBI labs for testing.” 

 

In Fresno County, officials were left begging for help from the federal government. 

 

“We were told to figure it out,” Magsig said. 

 

When the CDC finally visited the Reedley site, it spent just two days. It documented the pathogens that were in the lab (or those that were labeled in English, according to Zeiba), but there was no removal or testing. 

 

It was left to the city and county to properly dispose of the contents of the lab; at a price of $350,000. And that wasn’t paid for with federal grants or other funds, but through a decades-old city ordinance that allowed the city to go after the property, according to Zeiba. 

 

The county and city were also left to fight a $30 million lawsuit over the destroyed materials. That case was what ultimately led to the arrest of Jia Bei Zhu, the Chinese resident accused of being behind the Reedley lab. A company connected to his name owned the Las Vegas home raided by the FBI.

 

That lawsuit was only recently dismissed.

 

Zhu, who also did business under the name David He, was charged in 2023 with lying to regulators, distributing misbranded medical devices conspiracy and wire fraud connected to the discovery of the Reedley biolab. He remains in custody, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office Eastern District of California. His next court date is scheduled for Feb. 9 with the trail set to begin in late April.

 

It is not yet clear how the Las Vegas case might affect any charges against Zhu, but his attorney Anthony Capozzi told AP on Monday that Monday that his client was “not involved in any kind of a biolab being conducted in a home in Las Vegas.”

 

“What went on in that residence we are unaware of,” he said. Sheriff John Zanoni said he has been in communication with law enforcement in Las Vegas, but had little information to share about that case. But the existence of that second lab, operating in the middle of a neighborhood, is sign of a larger issue and should be considered a risk to national security, he said. “There are probably other labs out there. That is a scary thought.”