Federal and local law enforcement descended on a quiet Las Vegas neighborhood before dawn Saturday, uncovering what appears to be yet another disturbing chapter in a growing saga of CCP-linked biological activity on American soil.
According to RedState, the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department SWAT team, working alongside agents from the Federal Bureau of Investigation, executed a search warrant at a residence in northeast Las Vegas owned by Jia Bei Zhu, the Chinese national with documented ties to the Chinese Communist Party who previously operated an illegal biolab in Reedley, California.
Inside the garage, investigators discovered multiple refrigerators and freezers filled with vials, bottles, and jugs containing unknown liquid substances, along with assorted laboratory equipment, prompting FBI scientists and a specialized investigative unit to collect more than 1,000 samples. Those samples have now been transported to the National Bio-forensic Analysis Center in Maryland, where they will undergo detailed examination to determine precisely what was being stored less than three miles from one of Americas most important military installations.
Zhu, whose activities have already raised serious national security and public health concerns, was arrested in 2023 and remains in federal custody after a judge deemed him an extreme flight risk. He was indicted on charges of wire fraud, conspiracy, making false statements to federal agents, and distributing adulterated and misbranded COVID-19 test kits in violation of the federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act, and is scheduled to stand trial on March 10, 2026.
His business partner and girlfriend, fellow Chinese citizen Zhaoyan Wang, faces charges of wire fraud and distribution of adulterated and misbranded medical devices, but unlike Zhu, she is not in custody. Wang is believed to be in China, a fact that underscores the difficulty of holding foreign nationals accountable when they operate transnational schemes that intersect with U.S. public health and national security.
Federal agents also returned to the original Reedley biolab site on Sunday morning to execute another search warrant, revisiting the facility that first exposed the scope of Zhus operations. Officials declined to provide details about what was found there during a Monday afternoon press conference, leaving open questions about whether additional hazardous materials or evidence of broader networks were uncovered.
At the Las Vegas property, authorities reported that three individuals were living in the home when the warrant was served, each renting separate rooms from the property manager, identified as Ori Solomon. Solomon was arrested on charges of improperly disposing of and discharging hazardous waste, raising immediate questions about who hired him, when he began managing the property, and where the rent money was ultimately sent, given that Zhu has been jailed since 2023 and Wang is, as the original report put it, in the wind somewhere.
Local media quickly descended on the neighborhood, with one ABC reporter reportedly going door-to-door to speak with residents in an effort to piece together a timeline of activity at the house. One neighbor told 8 News Now that the home was "under surveillance" before the raid, suggesting that law enforcement had been monitoring the location for some time before moving in.
The decision to deploy a specialized FBI evidence collection team to the Las Vegas scene is particularly significant in light of what happened in Reedley. There, many of the materials discovered were labeled as containing dangerous pathogens such as Ebola, COVID, and HIV, yet the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention refused to test the contents of the vials and containers, leaving authorities unable to confirm whether the labels were accurate or whether the facility posed an even greater threat than initially believed.
That refusal has had real legal consequences, as it means Zhu and Wang cannot currently be charged with any form of bioterrorism offense based on the Reedley evidence alone. In Las Vegas, however, investigators emphasized that all refrigerators and freezers were plugged in and operational at the time of the raid, that the collected samples have been preserved in temperature-controlled containers, and that a formal chain of custody has been established, raising the possibility that more serious charges could follow if the Maryland lab confirms the presence of dangerous biological agents.
The location of Zhus Las Vegas home only heightens the concern. The property, at 979 Sugar Springs Road in northeast Las Vegas, sits less than three miles from the runways of Nellis Air Force Base, home to the U.S. Air Force Warfare Center, where advanced training, tactics development, and classified operations are routinely conducted. Whether Zhu and Wang intended to target military personnel or simply relocated equipment there when scrutiny intensified in California remains speculative, but the proximity alone represents a glaring national security vulnerability.
From that vantage point overlooking Nellis, the residence could have been used for more than just storage of suspicious biological materials. As observers have noted, it would have been an ideal perch to monitor base activity and potentially serve as a signals intelligence collection site, an especially troubling prospect given Zhus links to CCP-connected entities and the broader pattern of Chinese espionage and influence operations inside the United States.
Commentary circulating online has drawn attention to the striking pattern of these facilities appearing near sensitive military or strategic locations. One post, highlighting the Las Vegas address in relation to Nellis, remarked, "And ... Look how close that place is to Nellis! Just like Reedley and Lemoore. No coincidences. @KATYSaccitizen," capturing a growing sense on the right that these are not random business ventures but part of a more coordinated effort.
Back in 2023, Republican Rep. Kevin Kiley of Californias 3rd District requested that the House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party investigate the Reedley lab, a move that produced a deeply troubling report on Zhus operations and their CCP connections. On Monday, Kiley renewed his call for action, urging Congress to pass legislation he authored with fellow Republican Rep. David Valadao of Californias 22nd District to identify and shut down similar clandestine labs nationwide, warning that the Las Vegas raid shows the threat is neither isolated nor resolved.
Kiley summarized the stakes in a social media post tying the two facilities together. "The illegal bio lab just raided in Las Vegas was operated by the same LLC and Chinese nationals as the one discovered in Reedley, CA. Here's what we know about the Reedley lab from a highly disturbing report I requested by the Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party. It" he wrote, underscoring that the same network appears to be operating across state lines.
The Select Committees findings painted a picture far more alarming than that of a mere unlicensed or sloppy laboratory. Far from being simply an unlicensed laboratory, the facility didn't seem to meet any type of sanitation requirements, and Zhu and his business partnerswho include CCP-owned companiesfailed to contract with any medical waste disposal service, leaving local officials to discover "biologicals" such as "jars of urine and peed-on pregnancy tests," stuffed in desk drawers, as Reedley City Manager Nicole Zieba told the Fresno County Board of Supervisors.
The Reedley operation was nominally run by Prestige Biotech Incorporated, which allegedly acquired the assets of Universal Meditech, Inc. (UMI) of Fresno after UMI went out of business. Federal investigators, however, believe Zhu controlled both companies through aliases, with UMI selling and distributing in-vitro diagnostic test kits that appear to have been manufactured in China by yet another Zhu-linked firm, Ai De Diagnostic, which operates in China and Canada but lists its U.S. registered agent as Vivian Li of Universal Meditech.
Ai De Diagnostics headquarters are located in the Qingdao High-Tech Industrial Park, a facility established and overseen by the Chinese Communist Party, further cementing the connection between Zhus commercial ventures and CCP-directed infrastructure.
For lawmakers and citizens concerned about foreign influence and infiltration, this web of shell companies, overseas manufacturing, and proximity to U.S. military assets is precisely the kind of pattern that demands aggressive oversight and decisive legislative action.
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