By Federal authorities have executed a new search warrant at a property in Reedley, California, linked to an alleged unlicensed biological laboratory, expanding an investigation that intensified over the weekend with a raid at a Las Vegas residence tied to the same suspect.
The latest action followed a Saturday search in Las Vegas, where the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department and the Federal Bureau of Investigation served a warrant at a home in the city’s east valley near Washington Avenue and Hollywood Boulevard, writes Fox News. Authorities said they discovered evidence of a possible biological laboratory inside the residence, including a refrigerator containing vials filled with unknown liquids.
The “potential biological and hazardous materials” were primarily located in a locked garage, Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department Sheriff Kevin McMahill said during a press briefing on Monday, ABC News wrote.
In the garage, investigators found multiple refrigerators with vials of unknown liquids, unknown liquids in gallon-size containers, a centrifuge and other laboratory equipment, authorities said.
In an open refrigerator and freezer, investigators saw a “significant volume of material,” including vials and storage containers “with liquids of different colors and compositions,” McMahill said.
“The scene presented a high level of complexity with materials that have not yet been identified and still require careful assessment,” McMahill said.
More than 1,000 samples were collected, according to Chris Delzotto, the special agent in charge of the FBI’s Las Vegas office.
Property records show the Las Vegas home is owned by Jiabei Zhu, who also uses the name David He. Zhu is currently in federal custody in connection with a prior case involving a similar operation uncovered in Reedley, California, in 2022. That earlier facility, operating under companies including Prestige Biotech Incorporated, contained thousands of vials labeled with pathogens such as HIV, tuberculosis, malaria, hepatitis, and Ebola, as well as nearly 1,000 genetically modified mice engineered to simulate human immune systems.
According to contemporaneous reports, the Reedley lab came to light when a local code enforcement officer noticed irregularities at what appeared to be a vacant warehouse. Subsequent inspections uncovered unlabeled biological materials, medical waste, and infectious agents. Workers assisting authorities reportedly became ill after exposure to infected mice. The lab’s proximity to residential neighborhoods, a high school, and a water supply heightened public safety concerns at the time.
Federal charges filed in 2023 against Zhu and an associate accused them of manufacturing and distributing misbranded medical devices, making false statements to the Food and Drug Administration, fraud, and conspiracy. Prosecutors alleged the pair fraudulently sold COVID-19 test kits through one of Zhu’s businesses between August 2020 and March 2023, generating more than $1.7 million in illicit proceeds. Zhu, a Chinese national, was also described as a fugitive from Canada at the time of his arrest, with prior ties to companies in China’s dairy industry focused on addressing milk production challenges.
The lab received a tax credit from Gavin Newsom with over $350,000.
In the Las Vegas case, authorities arrested the property manager, 55-year-old Ori Solomon, charging him with disposing of and discharging hazardous waste. A federal complaint also accuses Solomon of unlawfully possessing six firearms in violation of visa conditions. Three unrelated individuals renting rooms in the home were removed safely and are not considered involved in the investigation.
Following the Las Vegas raid, the FBI conducted an additional search Sunday at Zhu’s Reedley property, according to reports from local outlets in Fresno. Federal authorities say investigations into both locations remain ongoing as they examine potential links to unauthorized biological activities.
The cases have renewed scrutiny of unregulated biological materials operating on U.S. soil, amid broader concerns about vulnerabilities in agricultural and public health systems and the potential risks posed by foreign-linked operations.
Those concerns sharpened in 2025 with a series of arrests involving researchers at the University of Michigan. In June, federal agents charged two university-affiliated researchers with attempting to smuggle samples of Fusarium graminearum—a destructive wheat blight fungus—out of the United States, allegedly bound for China. Court filings treated the case as a potential agroterrorism incident, noting the pathogen’s capacity to devastate staple grain crops and disrupt global food supplies.
The Michigan arrests were followed by additional federal charges against other Chinese nationals linked to U.S. academic programs who were accused of illegally importing undisclosed biological materials. Investigators and campus officials acknowledged that the frequency and nature of the cases raised deeper questions about laboratory oversight, research security, and whether American universities have become soft targets for the covert acquisition of agricultural and biological pathogens.
National security advisers have also argued that, taken together with Florida’s citrus collapse and the discovery of unlicensed biolabs, the incidents point to a broader vulnerability—one in which biological threats to food systems emerge quietly, through research channels and academic cover, rather than through overt acts of war.
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