FBI found possible biolab in Las Vegas, revealing ties to Reedley. Here are 5 takeaways
The FBI raided a Las Vegas home earlier this month and found refrigerators with vials of unknown liquids, and then searched a Reedley warehouse that has been linked to the same suspects.
The case traces back to 2022, when a Reedley city code enforcement officer discovered an illegal biolab stocked with infectious agents, lab mice and misbranded COVID-19 test kits.
Here are the highlights of recent events and how the Las Vegas raid ties into the years-old case in Fresno County.
- Property records link the Las Vegas home to David Destiny Discovery LLC, a company tracing back to Jia Bei Zhu and Zhaoyan Wang — the same pair indicted after the 2022 Reedley lab discovery. Zhu’s attorney Anthony Capozzi told AP his client was “not involved in any kind of a biolab being conducted in a home in Las Vegas.”
- The Reedley warehouse, found by code enforcement officer Jesalyn Harper following up on an anonymous complaint in December 2022, contained at least 20 potentially infectious agents including COVID-19, HIV, hepatitis B and C, malaria and rubella, according to the CDC.
- Fresno County and Reedley spent $350,000 cleaning up the warehouse with no federal funding and then fought a $30 million lawsuit from the lab’s operators over destroyed materials. “We were told to figure it out,” Fresno County Supervisor Nathan Magsig said.
- Zhu, also known as David He, was charged in 2023 with lying to regulators, distributing misbranded medical devices, conspiracy and wire fraud. He remains in custody with a trial set for late April.
- Fresno County Sheriff John Zanoni called the Las Vegas discovery a national security concern. “There are probably other labs out there,” he said. “That is a scary thought.”
The summary points above were compiled with the help of AI tools and edited by journalists. The full story in the link at top was reported, written and edited entirely by journalists.
This story was originally published February 19, 2026 at 8:09 AM with the headline "FBI found possible biolab in Las Vegas, revealing ties to Reedley. Here are 5 takeaways."
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