ILLEGAL BIOLOGICAL LABS DISCOVERED IN AMERICAN NEIGHBORHOODS:

The Las Vegas Discovery Exposes a National Security Crisis

An Investigation by Lone Star Ledger

February 7, 2026

In a story that should be dominating every major news outlet across America, federal investigators have uncovered what appears to be an illegal biological laboratory operating out of a residential home in Las Vegas, Nevada. The discovery, made during a SWAT raid on January 31 by the FBI and Las Vegas Metropolitan Police, has revealed a network of sophisticated biological operations with direct links to a Chinese national previously tied to a similar lab in California and connections to PRC state-controlled entities.

What makes this story particularly alarming is not just the nature of what was found, but the apparent systematic failure of our national security apparatus to detect and prevent these operations from taking root in American communities. Multiple people have fallen seriously ill from exposure to materials at the site, and the scope of the operation suggests this is far from an isolated incident.

The Discovery: More Than 1,000 Samples Seized

On January 31, 2026, FBI agents and Las Vegas SWAT officers executed search warrants at properties in northeast Las Vegas following a tip from a house cleaner received on January 9. Investigators spent the weekend removing materials from the scene. What they found was a sophisticated biological laboratory operating out of a residential garage, complete with refrigeration units, laboratory equipment, and over 1,000 samples of potential biological and hazardous materials.

According to Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Sheriff Kevin McMahill, investigators discovered “multiple refrigerators, a freezer, and other laboratory-type equipment, along with numerous bottles and jugs containing unknown liquid substances” inside a locked garage. These items were “consistent in appearance to the items found and described in the Reedley, California, lab investigation,” McMahill said.

FBI Special Agent in Charge Christopher Delzotto reported that the initial search revealed “a bio-safety hood, a bio-safety sticker, a centrifuge, multiple refrigerators, red-brown unknown liquids in gallon-sized containers and refrigerated vials with unknown liquids.” More than 1,000 samples were collected and transported to FBI laboratories for testing.

Multiple Victims Fall “Deathly Ill”

Perhaps most disturbing is the evidence that this operation was already causing harm to innocent Americans. According to police reports, a house cleaner and another employee both became “deathly ill” after entering the garage where the biological materials were stored in April 2025. The house cleaner reported that approximately five days after entering the garage, she was left with “breathing issues, fatigue,” and “could not get out of bed.” The other employee experienced the same symptoms. The cleaner also reported that Solomon’s wife got sick after entering the garage, and that “a lot of people who have lived inside the house have gotten sick,” including one woman hospitalized with severe respiratory issues.

Witnesses described the garage as having a smell “like a hospital – not like a clean hospital but more of a foul, stale, stagnant air smell.” The property also reportedly contained “many dead crickets” throughout the house, with several people getting sick from exposure to the environment.

Alleged Links to PRC State-Controlled Entities

The Las Vegas operation is not an isolated incident. The property is owned by David Destiny Discovery, LLC, which is registered to Jia Bei Zhu (also known as Jesse Zhu, Qiang He, and David He), a 62-year-old Chinese national who was arrested in October 2023 in connection with the illegal biological laboratory discovered in Reedley, California. Zhu was charged with manufacturing and distributing misbranded medical devices and making false statements to the FDA.

According to a House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party report, Zhu was a fugitive from Canada with a $330 million Canadian court judgment against him for stealing American intellectual property. The report further revealed that Zhu was “a top official at a PRC-state-controlled company and had links to military-civil fusion entities.” His own admissions indicated his activities were done to “further PRC policy” and to meet the demands of the PRC Premier.

After entering the United States under his “David He” alias, Zhu formed new companies with the help of an unnamed accountant who, according to the Select Committee report, had ties to entities associated with the CCP’s United Front Work Department, including an organization tied to the radicalization of David Chou, a PRC national who attacked a Taiwanese church in 2022.

The California Precedent: A Preview of Las Vegas

The Reedley, California laboratory, first discovered by a code enforcement officer in December 2022, provides a disturbing preview of what investigators may find in the Las Vegas samples currently being tested. The California facility contained vials with labels indicating HIV, tuberculosis, and “the deadliest known form of malaria,” along with other potential pathogens including COVID-19. Investigators also found a refrigerator labeled “Ebola.”

Perhaps most alarming, investigators discovered approximately 1,000 mice that were transgenic — genetically engineered to simulate the human immune system and capable of catching and carrying the COVID-19 virus. The House Select Committee report noted the presence of “blood, tissue, and other bodily fluid samples, along with serums” and “thousands of vials containing unlabeled fluids and suspected biological material.”

Immigration Law Violations Compound the Threat

Adding to the concern, multiple individuals connected to these operations were either in the country under questionable circumstances or in violation of their immigration status. Jia Bei Zhu was a fugitive from Canada who entered the United States under his “David He” alias after fleeing a $330 million civil judgment. Property manager Ori Solomon was found to be in violation of federal firearms laws due to his non-immigrant visa status.

Solomon, an Israeli citizen residing in the U.S. on a non-immigrant E-2 visa, was prohibited from possessing firearms but was found with six firearms including several semi-automatic handguns and an assault rifle. Investigators also discovered he possessed both Israeli and French passports. The federal complaint charged him under the name Ori Salomon, though he also goes by Ori Solomon.

Phone records reveal that Zhu contacted Solomon from jail approximately 467 times in the month of January alone, indicating continued coordination even while the primary operator was incarcerated. Zhu also instructed Solomon to manage his properties and transfer money to him while awaiting trial. Zhu’s wife, Zhaoyan Wang, who fled the country amid his legal troubles, was contacted over 3,500 times and is believed to have had access to cameras monitoring the Las Vegas home.

A Network, Not Isolated Incidents

Evidence suggests these discoveries represent only a small portion of a much larger network of operations. According to arrest reports, Zhu and his associates had attempted to license a medical laboratory on West Charleston Boulevard in Las Vegas but were unsuccessful. The appearance of similar materials at the Sugar Springs residence suggests efforts to relocate and reconstitute these facilities outside regulatory scrutiny.

Congressman Kevin Kiley (R-CA), who has been investigating these operations, warned that “We don’t know what other ones that might be out there are linked to this same group or individuals connected to the Chinese Communist Party or anywhere else.” Congressional investigators have raised concerns about Zhu’s prior affiliations with PRC-linked entities, though no public agency has confirmed direct state control of the Las Vegas operation. The investigation remains ongoing.

Distribution records indicate these operations may have national reach. Court documents reference shipments of 47,500 pregnancy test kits imported from China to a Las Vegas address linked to the operation. Zhu’s companies are alleged to have manufactured, imported, and sold hundreds of thousands of misbranded and unauthorized medical test kits, including COVID-19, HIV, and pregnancy tests falsely marketed as made in America, raising serious public health concerns about the accuracy and safety of these products.

Systematic Regulatory Failures

What makes this story even more alarming is the apparent systematic failure of multiple levels of government to detect, prevent, or respond to these operations. The Las Vegas facility was not discovered through proactive counterintelligence work, but rather through a tip from a house cleaner who became sick from exposure to the materials.

Fresno County Sheriff John Zanoni stated bluntly: “This is putting our national security at risk because no one knows about these labs.” Local officials report that they received inadequate support from federal agencies. Reedley City Manager Nicole Zieba said that in 2023, her city had “no help from the state, the FBI, or any other federal agencies,” and that it took Biden’s CDC over five months to come to the site, where all they did was catalog the different pathogens. Federal inspectors never tested the questionable vials or the contents of a refrigerator marked with “Ebola,” leaving local officials to destroy everything in the laboratory themselves.

The regulatory gaps are inexcusable. The California facility was operating from at least December 2020 until its discovery by a code enforcement officer in December 2022, with the investigation and cleanup continuing through 2023. The Las Vegas operation’s duration remains unclear, though workers reported becoming ill after entering the garage as far back as April 2025.

The National Security Implications

The scope and sophistication of these operations raises questions that go far beyond individual criminal activity. The institutional depth, operational sophistication, financial backing, and strategic patience demonstrated by these operations warrants serious investigation into whether professional intelligence capabilities were involved. Congressional investigators have documented Zhu’s prior roles in PRC state-controlled companies and military-civil fusion entities, but the full nature and purpose of the Las Vegas and Reedley operations remains under active investigation.

The fact that these operations have been running across multiple states with apparent impunity raises serious questions about our counterintelligence capabilities and biosecurity oversight. Whether this represents state-directed activity, private criminal enterprises with state connections, or something else entirely, the potential public health risk is enormous and the investigation must determine the intent behind these operations.

The pattern of transgenic mice capable of carrying COVID-19, combined with vials labeled with deadly pathogens, raises urgent questions about the purpose of this research and whether it poses a potential bioweapons risk. The residential location of these operations puts innocent American families at direct risk from accidental exposure to potentially dangerous biological agents — a risk already demonstrated by the multiple people who fell ill.

What Must Be Done

This discovery should serve as a wake-up call for comprehensive action to protect American national security. First and foremost, we need immediate and thorough investigation of how many similar operations exist across the United States. The fact that these facilities were discovered essentially by accident suggests that many more may be operating undetected.

We need robust border security and immigration enforcement that distinguishes between legitimate asylum seekers who follow proper procedures and criminal networks that pose genuine threats to public safety. The revelation that key operators were in the country illegally or in violation of their status demonstrates the critical importance of effective immigration control.

Most importantly, we need to fundamentally reassess our economic relationship with China. The Select Committee’s findings on Zhu’s PRC connections, combined with the scale of these operations, demand a serious policy response. We cannot continue to ignore the biosecurity vulnerabilities that allow illegal biological laboratories to operate in American neighborhoods while the full scope and intent of these operations remains unknown.

Conclusion

The discovery of illegal biological laboratories operating in American neighborhoods represents a fundamental failure of our national security apparatus and our biosecurity framework. American families face the very real threat of exposure to dangerous biological materials in their own communities — a threat that has already made multiple people seriously ill.

This is not simply a story about immigration policy or trade relations — this is a story about illegal biological operations with documented connections to PRC-linked entities running on American soil with apparent impunity. The fact that multiple people have already fallen seriously ill from exposure to these materials, and that similar operations have been discovered across multiple states, demands immediate answers about what was being developed and why.

The time for half-measures has long passed. We need immediate, comprehensive action to identify and shut down these operations, determine their true purpose, and close the biosecurity gaps that allowed them to operate undetected. The American people deserve answers — and they deserve them now.

Sources

1. Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department and FBI Press Conference, February 2, 2026

2. ABC News: “Housecleaner said multiple illnesses tied to Las Vegas house with possible bio lab: Police report” – February 5, 2026

3. ABC News: “1,000 samples sent for testing after possible biological lab found inside Las Vegas home: FBI” – February 3, 2026

4. 8 News Now Investigators: “Las Vegas bio lab sparks information sharing, federal oversight concerns” – February 4, 2026

5. The Hill: “Illegal bio lab in Las Vegas home raises health concerns” – February 4, 2026

6. CBS News: “Bio lab found in Las Vegas is similar to scene discovered in California, raising questions from officials” – February 5, 2026

7. AMAC: “China Syndrome: Biolabs in California, Las Vegas Raided by FBI Tied to Indicted Chinese National” – February 5, 2026

8. Las Vegas Review-Journal: “Police: Exposure to property linked to Las Vegas bio lab probe left 2 ‘deathly ill'” – February 5, 2026

9. House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party Report on Reedley Biolab Investigation, 2023

10. U.S. Department of Justice Criminal Complaint and Indictments: United States v. Jia Bei Zhu, et al.

11. KTNV Channel 13 Investigators: “Police source describes falling ‘deathly ill’ after entering Las Vegas garage where biolab was found” — February 4, 2026

12. ABC30 Fresno: “Illegal Reedley biolab linked to Las Vegas lab; Fresno County and city officials say Reedley is safe” — February 4, 2026

—

For more investigative reporting and analysis, visit www.lonestarledger.org

This feature includes an accompanying podcast episode with additional context and discussion.
Listen to the full podcast: https://www.lonestarledger.org/podcast/beyond-the-trigger/

So, who are you really voting for this next election — your candidate, or Wilks and Dunn?