FBI raids municipal BIO-LAB in Las Vegas, seizing biological samples for Ebola and HIV and phony COVID-19 test kits

The discovery of a clandestine laboratory in a quiet Las Vegas neighborhood feels less like an isolated incident and more like the unraveling of a thread in a much larger, more disturbing tapestry. This latest raid, authorities confirm, is directly tied to an illegal biolab shut down in Reedley, California, over three years ago, suggesting a hidden network of bio-labs operating in the shadows of American suburbs. The story that emerges is not just one of regulatory failure but of a persistent and sprawling operation that stockpiled dangerous pathogens, trafficked in counterfeit medical tests, and exploited glaring gaps in the nation’s biosecurity framework, all while the individuals behind it moved between states and used numerous aliases with unsettling ease.

Key points:

• Las Vegas authorities, alongside the FBI, raided a residence in late January, collecting over 1,000 pieces of evidence including biological materials, and arrested a second suspect, property manager Ori Solomon.
• The home is owned by the same individual, David He (also known as Jia Bei Zhu), who is already in federal custody for operating the illicit Reedley, California, biolab discovered in late 2022.
• The Reedley lab contained thousands of vials of biological material, including potential pathogens like HIV, malaria, tuberculosis, COVID-19, and Ebola, as well as approximately 1,000 genetically engineered mice.
• The operation also involved the mass production and sale of misbranded and counterfeit medical test kits, including for COVID-19 and pregnancy, with shipments funneled through a Las Vegas address.
• A congressional report on the Reedley case highlighted critical failures, noting the CDC refused to test samples and the FBI initially closed its investigation prematurely, exposing dangerous loopholes in national biosecurity.

From a plumbing complaint to a Pandora’s box

The entire saga began not with a dramatic FBI tip, but with a mundane municipal issue. In December 2022, a Reedley code enforcement officer responded to a complaint about unpermitted plumbing. What they found upon entering the Prestige Biotech warehouse was a scene that seemed ripped from a thriller: manufacturing equipment, shipping supplies, and employees packaging diagnostic test kits. This peek behind the curtain led to a far more horrifying discovery. Investigators would later document a collection that chilled public health officials to the bone—thousands of unlabeled vials holding unknown fluids and suspected biological agents. The inventory read like a roster of global health nightmares: HIV, malaria, tuberculosis, and the viruses that cause COVID-19 and Ebola. Adding to the surreal and concerning environment were roughly 1,000 mice, kept in overcrowded conditions, which a worker claimed were genetically engineered to carry COVID-19.

The man at the center, David He, also known by multiple aliases including Jesse Zhu, presented a moving target for investigators. He gave false statements to the FDA, denied knowledge of his companies’ activities, and obscured his role. Meanwhile, his operations spanned from California to Nevada. The recent Las Vegas raid on a home tied to him and his partner, Zhaoyan Wang, confirms that the Reedley facility was not a solitary venture. As Reedley City Manager Nicole Zieba noted with a tone of grim validation, local officials had suspected ties to Nevada from the start. “Back then, we knew there were ties to Las Vegas,” Zieba said.

A business built on deception and bio-terror

Parallel to the terrifying biological stockpile was a lucrative business built on deception. Through companies named Universal Meditech Inc. and Prestige Biotech Inc., He and Wang allegedly manufactured, imported, and sold hundreds of thousands of counterfeit and misbranded medical test kits. These were not harmless fakes; they were pregnancy tests, COVID-19 tests, and HIV tests falsely marketed as made in America when they originated from China. The potential consequences are profound, as false results can delay critical medical care and undermine public health efforts. Court documents allege that 47,500 pregnancy test kits were even shipped from China to a Las Vegas address linked to the operation, weaving the Nevada connection directly into the commercial fraud.

This duality—posing both an acute bio-hazard risk and a widespread consumer fraud—paints a picture of an operation with complex and troubling motivations. It raises uncomfortable questions that extend beyond negligence into the realm of deliberate concealment and conspiracy. A House Select Committee report on the Reedley lab went so far as to suggest the facility “may have served as a cover for fraud and government-assisted economic espionage,” though it stopped short of detailing conclusive evidence. The report’s broader conclusion, however, was damning for U.S. oversight: it highlighted a “disturbing realization… that no one knows whether there are other unknown bio labs in the United States.”

The lingering shadow of unanswered questions

The governmental response to the original Reedley discovery has become a point of significant frustration for local leaders who first sounded the alarm. Zieba expressed a sentiment shared by many following the labyrinthine case: “There’s a lot of frustration on my part because we were raising red flags about the loopholes in national security for biologicals way back in 2023 when this all occurred.” The congressional investigation found that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention declined to test the seized samples, and the FBI had initially closed its inquiry, having found no traditional “weapons of mass destruction.” This narrow focus missed the broader threat of unsecured, potentially infectious agents that could cause illness or be used for harm outside a battlefield context.

The Las Vegas discovery has reignited calls for legislative action. Some federal leaders are now pushing for the reintroduction of the “Preventing Illegal Laboratories and Protecting Public Health Act of 2025,” a bill designed to tighten federal oversight of pathogens and high-containment labs. For the residents of Sugar Springs Drive in Las Vegas, the immediate threat has been contained; Sheriff Kevin McMahill assured the public the incident is isolated. Yet, the unease lingers like a faint chemical smell. The case peels back the curtain on a world where deadly pathogens can be acquired online and hidden in plain sight, where counterfeit medical devices flood the market, and where the systems designed to protect the public seem, at times, set up to harm. As the evidence from Las Vegas makes its way to FBI labs for analysis, a nation is left to wonder what, or who, might be discovered next.

Sources include:

TheEpochTimes.com

News3LV.com

ABC30.com