These are the shocking photos taken by investigators during the bust of an illegal biolab in a sleepy California town.
Local and federal officials discovered a lab of horrors with suspicious links to China when they raided the unassuming warehouse in Reedley – home to just over 25,000 residents – in March.
Photos obtained by DailyMail.com via court documents show dead mice stuffed in storage bins haphazardly shoved on shelves and freezers filled to the brim with bottles of blood and plasma of origins unknown.
The images also show stacks of boxes containing dangerous pathogens, including one labeled ‘malaria’ that had Chinese etched on it. Other infectious agents discovered during the bust include Covid-19, tuberculosis, HIV, herpes, and dengue fever.
Unanswered questions remain about the origins of the lab, who was running it, and whether it posed a bioterrorism threat.
Nearly 1,000 mistreated and malnourished white lab mice were discovered at the facility in subpar conditions. About 200 of them were already dead. The rest have been humanely euthanized by a veterinarian
Among hundreds of vials of infectious viruses and bacteria, many of which were stored improperly in shoddy freezers, were samples of malaria, shown here, alongside Chinese characters. Other infectious agents found included strains of the herpes virus, the bacterium that causes meningitis, chlamydia, Covid-19, and HIV
Local and federal officials raided the unassuming warehouse in Reedley – home to just over 25,000 residents – where they discovered a lab of horrors with suspicious links to China
The photos were included in unsealed court documents obtained by DailyMail.com after the initial bust of the lab made headlines over the weekend.
The black-market lab was brought to official attention late last year when a code enforcement officer driving down the street noticed a garden hose sticking out of a building where it should not have been.
This lucky catch thrust into motion a combined state, local, and federal probe in March, one that Reedley City Manager Nicole Zieba had never seen before.
Ms Zieba said: ‘This is an unusual situation. I’ve been in government for 25 years. I’ve never seen anything like this.’
A warrant issued soon after the official happened across the code violation allowed those in the government to search the nondescript building, where they were shocked at what they found.
On March 3, investigators gained entry to the warehouse on I street operated by an organization called Prestige BioTech.
They discovered a small room containing nearly 1,000 white mice crowded into storage containers under bright lights 24 hours a day, seven days a week in an airless room on perpetually dirty bedding. When investigators found them, hundreds were already dead.
A wide array of vials were also identified containing biomaterials, including blood and tissue, as well as many other unlabeled chemicals.
Some were found to contain chlamydia, E. Coli, streptococcus pneumonia, hepatitis B and C, herpes 1 and 5, rubella and malaria. And it appears that the biological waste produced at the site was discarded in such a way that violated the safe remotal protocols required in the state Medical Waste Management Act.
To date, city officials have removed than 5,000 gallons of biological waste from the site over three separate trips.
The mice were confined to a poorly ventilated room hardly larger than a closet under constant bright lights shown in the above photo. Court documents also say they lacked adequate food and water
Investigators also found containers of plasma and blood of unknown origin and for unknown purposes
Several of the 32 freezers containing biological materials and dangerous pathogens that were found were malfunctioning, as power had been cut to the building
Blood and plasma from unidentified sources were also found in some of the several freezers on the premises
The discovery of dangerous pathogens will raise serious concerns about the kind of experiments being done there. But health security experts do not believe it was a plant meant to manufacture bioweapons or other tools of terrorism.
Dr Amesh Adalja, Senior Scholar at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security, told DailyMail.com: ‘It’s unclear what was going on there but I don’t think any of those things are evidence of anything nefarious, more like something careless.
‘The organisms we’re talking about are fairly ordinary. Those would not be efficient biological weapons versus something like anthrax, which we’ve seen used as a weapon before.’
Dr Adalja further posited that the operation could have been launched several years ago as a Covid diagnostics manufacturer in order to profit from the dire need in 2020 for more tests.
He said: ‘It looks more like a half baked idea that failed with a lax sense of responsibility to clean up the mess.’
Officials have said the stored viruses and bacteria have been properly discarded and the distressed mice humanely euthanized.
Court documents show the communciations between city officials and lab employees which suggest that up until then, the storage methods for the lab mice were sub-par.
Code enforcement officer Jesalyn Harper said in a letter to the president of Prestige BioTech: ‘There are regulations and standards for keeping mice.
‘You are not meeting these standards at a state or local level. You have yet to provide us with the UMI procedures that would outline your care plan for these mice.’
County officials also brought in a veterinarian to assess the health of the mice and concluded that ‘there is great concern for the way the mice are being kept and cared for.’
And water to the building had been shut off, leaving few if any sources of drinking water for the mice.
In May, when staff from the CDC joined the investigation with an in-person inspection they found hundreds of vials of infectious viruses and bacteria in the lab.
Despite what they found, a representative of the company behind the lab named David He reportedly disputed Fresno County officials ‘that infectious agents were kept on the property.’
An official added in a request for a warrant to go in and dispose of the lab’s contents: ‘On June 8, 2023, I responded to David He’s June 7, 2023, email and provided a list of all identified infectious agents found on the Property.
‘Mr He’s purported lack of knowledge of infectious agents on the Property raises serious concerns with the lack of safety protocols and direction offered by Prestige Biotech and other business entities handling of these infectious agents as a serious threat to public health and safety.’
Investigators found several unmarked biohazard bags including an orange biohazard bag that is not permissible for containment of medical waste in California
The red biohazard bag was neither marked nor certified, per court documents
The investigators noticed that several freezers in the warehouse were not functional. There were also freezers that they did not dare open for fear of exposure to whatever infectious agents were stored inside
The contents are unknown, as investigators deemed it unsafe to inspect further, but it violated municipal waste management requirements
Investigators also found a biohazardous waste container, one example of the facility’s improper disposal practices, having been shrinkwrapped and stored next to filing cabinets.
For example, court documents say, a mosquito could feed on the samples of tissue or blood exposed to malaria stored on the property, becoming a vector to spread the disease in humans.
Mr He further denied any and all arguments that the storage posed a threat to public health and only admitted to having samples of E. Coli and nothing else.
And the county officials were skeptical from the start about Mr He’s legitimate affiliation with Prestige Biotech, noting that he provided no satisfactory documentation to the county’s public health department that he was an authorized agent of the firm or its predecessor, Universal Meditech Inc. So far, the forces behind the lab remain shrouded in mystery.
The county official said: ‘Fresno County Public Health staff has made repeated attempts to request the identities and contact information for the principals and/or authorized agents of Prestige Biotech and UMI. These attempts have thus far been futile.’
Mr He also offered information that county officials maintain ‘failed to communicate and identify a representative for Prestige Biotech or UMI authorized to do business in California.’ For instance, Xiaoxiao Wang was named as the agent from UMI that assumed financial responsibility for the business in Reedley and the address that was provided was in Fresno.
But that address ended up being the same address where UMI operated its previous unlicensed laboratory before hastily transferring all biologicals, equipment, and mice to the Reedley facility after the owner of the property threatened eviction.
And while the precise origins of the lab remain unknown, county officials noted that the other addresses provided were empty offices in China or other addresses in that country that could not be verified.
Among hundreds of vials of dangerous viruses and bacteria along with shelves of dead and distressed mice lacking food and water, investigators also found over 30 freezers containing biological materials, some of which ‘had either stopped functioning or were failing due to an inadequate power supply.
Currently, the investigation into the provenance of the lab is ongoing. While biological materials have been removed, power to the facility has been cut, and lab workers have cleared out, the shoddy equipment remains.
Nicole Zieba told reporters: ‘There are no more biologicals. There are no more mice, but they still will see us abating 30 freezers and fridges, medical equipment, and all sorts of furniture in there. They’ll still see some activity nothing hazardous at this point.
‘Some of our federal partners still have active investigations going I can only speak to the building side of it.’
