Local and federal law enforcement discovered an illicit biolab with links to China operating out of a Las Vegas home over the weekend, possibly containing biological agents with “unusually high transmissibility,” with potentially “extensive exposure” in the area.
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The Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department (LVMPD) issued a statement and held a press conference on Monday, announcing a raid on a biolab located in a residence on Sugar Springs Drive in Northeast Las Vegas.
The LVMPD and FBI spent multiple days investigating and safely extracting biohazardous material from the house and transporting that material for study.
The raid began on January 31, and, according to a press conference, law enforcement used a robot dog to enter the residence before officers entered.
Law enforcement played footage of the raid during the press conference, showing the discovery of various vials and containers of biological materials in the house.
Police found that the property owner of the lab was arrested in connection with an illegal biolab discovered in Reedley, California, in 2023. That suspect, Jia Bei Zhu, in his 60s, is a Chinese citizen with reported ties to the Chinese government and a transnational criminal enterprise.
Zhu is already in custody in connection with the California lab, but the Sugar Springs Drive property manager, Ori Solomon, 55, was taken into custody on charges of disposing of and discharging hazardous waste.
He was also the property manager of a house on Las Vegas’ Temple View Drive. The FBI raided that property as well, but found no links to the bio-lab there.
After the press release, an apparent FBI document on the incident began circulating on social media, raising serious concerns.
According to that document, “the facility housed multiple biological agents exhibiting unusually high transmissibility.”
At the time the alleged FBI document was released, law enforcement had not yet identified the full characteristics of the biological agents.
The document warned that the situation is serious but urged officials not to release the details to the public and risk causing mass panic because “extensive community exposure likely occurred prior to site contamination.”
The document showed that the lab was not registered with any regulatory body and contained documentation that was fragmented, encrypted, or intentionally destroyed.
The alleged FBI report found that several people associated with the lab are unaccounted for.
“Health consultants advise that a significant number of community members may already have been exposed through unknown vectors. At present there is no verified data indicating widespread severe outcomes. Uncertainty remains due to the unidentified nature of the agents,” says the document.
One day after the police press release, a local news outlet reported that they obtained documents claiming that two people became “deathly ill” after entering the property and that it was serving as an Airbnb at the same time it was being used as a biolab.
The Maine Wire cannot independently confirm the veracity of the alleged FBI document or the local news report.
